If you’re an avid hiker, which I am not, and you’re on a hill, you know that walking downhill feels like it’s more difficult than walking up the hill. And, if you look at mortgage rates over a span of several months, they do appear to be an outline of the Sierra Nevada mountains. The only difference is…going down is always better than going up as far as mortgage rates are concerned! So, let’s look at one such mortgage “hill” in recent history and help you answer that question: are rates going up or down?

The above chart is readily available on FreddieMac.com and shows a period from April 26, 2018 to April 26, 2019. For the purposes of this article, we will just refer to the 30-year fixed mortgage rates. As you can see, the rates started at 4.58% and steadily rose to reach a peak of 4.94% in November only to land much lower to 4.20% just a couple of days back. So, where is it going from here, you ask? It depends on who you’re asking.

Bankrate.com, a leading financial services company that publishes mortgage and other rates of interest for consumers, asked some well-known mortgage experts and analysts to predict if the mortgage rates would go up, down or just stay where they are. The results were interesting to say the least…

·       20% said the rates would go up.

·       60% said the rates would go down.

·       20% said the rates would remain unchanged.

Freddie Mac, a government-sponsored home loan lender and ranked 38^th on the 2018 Fortune 500 list, released a recent report, unified by their economists and analysts, that would cover this year and 2020. They say that mortgage rates will go up from where it is now to average around 4.6% for 2019 (pretty much going back to the rate in April 2018) and will further increase to an average of 4.9% in 2020..

So, there you have it. No one can give you a guarantee on what will happen to mortgage rates in the year, but we hope this article will give you an idea of what to expect and can help you carve a path for your personal decision to buy a home or not.