One of the most loaded questions when I first meet a customer is “What’s the current mortgage rate?” If there is any hesitation or back tracking in my voice the customer’s radar immediately goes up. Whenever I am quoting mortgage rates in the beginning of the process, I quote a range of interest rates.

As July home sales leaped month to month, mortgage rates dropped to a three-month low last week. This, as well as the tax credit set to expire in November for first-time buyers, should fuel housing excitement.

The mortgage rates in the United States rose last week. Economy shows its first signs of recovery and as the Treasury yields climbed, it affected the mortgage interest rates the same way. However, is the demand for new mortgage applications and refinancing going up?

Variable rate mortgages are at the lowest rates in history at the moment and for those that took a variable rate over a year ago and received a discount to prime are currently paying a little over 1% interest on their mortgage.

It never stops to amaze me what some lenders pass for a good faith estimate. Typically when a customer starts shopping for his or her mortgage lender they will start by calling around to find the lowest mortgage rate.

Long-term mortgage rates ticked up last week, which Freddie Mac, in its weekly survey, attributes to improving jobless figures. There is also hope that the current housing slump may be coming to an end, as well, and that may be contributing, the survey said.

Many people don't quite understand what causes mortgage rates to change. The media can cause all kinds of confusion and rarely give information that isn’t misleading or unclear for consumers. Here is the truth.

According to mortgage rates monitoring site Zillow the average U.S. 30-year mortgage rate last week has gone up to 5.38 percent from being 5.25 a week before. The situation is similar in UK too.

As we are starting a new week I was curious to see what the street and analysts are saying and thinking about the mortgage rates today and during the current week. The general trend that I am seeing so far judging from the headlines is that the upward trend of the current mortgage rates is continuing and we are slowly approaching to 6 home loans.

Good economic news, relatively speaking, caused the mortgage rates to drop this week. It will be interesting to watch rates next week as today's jobless numbers should increase optimism.

The rise of the mortgage rates in the last and current week have made many home buyers and refinance seekers to be more careful about choosing just any mortgage offer. The hunt for the lowest mortgage rates has already started as the interest rates are slowly going up.

Optimism, yes, optimism caused yields in the bond market to rise this week. Mortgage rates followed them, as Freddie Mac indicated in their weekly mortgage survey.