If you are looking to buy a home right now you might be surprised by higher mortgage interest rates than we have seen for much of the past year...

January = 3.45%

February = 3.92%

March = 4.16%

April = 5.00%

May = 5.30%

June = 5.78%

July = 5.51%

August = 5.13%

September = 6.02%

Now = 6.94%

How could mortgage interest rates be close to 7% after having started the year at 3.45%?

Surely mortgage interest rates will start coming back down again soon, to 4% or 5%, right?  Or even 6%?

I don't think that we can assume that mortgage interest rates are going to drop substantially at this point.  Mortgage interest rates may very well continue to be between 6% and 7% for the next 12 months.

As such, if you are thinking about buying a home right now, you should see what your payments will look like at current mortgage interest rates and decide if that is a monthly payment that will work for you.  If so, it may be worth going ahead and moving forward with a purchase rather than holding off in hopes of lower mortgage interest rates.

While it is certainly possible that mortgage interest rates will start declining again, I don't think we can assume that is what will happen next.