MORTGAGE Experts to public: Tap into lower rates fast

Mortgage rates are the lowest they've been since spring.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Jump in now. That's the advice from experts to people who are thinking about refinancing a home or buying one, in light of the recent drop in mortgage rates.
Those falling rates are seen as temporary. Forecasters predict rates will again start to slowly climb through next year.
"Strike while the iron is hot," says Greg McBride, a financial analyst with Bankrate.com, an online financial service.
"There is no telling exactly when they might quickly reverse course and move higher," he said.
The mortgage company Freddie Mac reported last week that rates on 30-year and 15-year fixed-rate mortgages fell for the third week in a row and were at their lowest levels since the spring.
Rates on one-year adjustable-rate mortgages were at their lowest point since the beginning of June. The declines took experts by surprise.
Inflation
The lower rates, generally speaking, reflected investors' growing confidence in the Federal Reserve's ability to keep inflation under control.
They also signal investors' sense that the economy will grow solidly, though not so fast that Fed policy-makers would be forced to move aggressively in raising short-term interest rates.
Those market forces pushed down bond rates, which in turn depressed mortgage rates.
Benchmark 30-year mortgages dropped last week to 6.01 percent while 15-year mortgages were at 5.42 percent and one-year ARMs at 4.05 percent, according to weekly figures compiled by Freddie Mac.
"It's unlikely you're going to see a decline of interest rates from where they are at today unless the economy starts to really dramatically slow and I don't know of anyone, including ourselves, who is forecasting that," says Doug Duncan, chief economist at the Mortgage Bankers Association.
By year's end, rates on 30-year mortgages could reach 7 percent, 15-year rates 6.25 percent and one-year ARMs more than 5 percent, according to various estimates.
Lenders say the recent drop in rates has led to a burst of activity.
On the home-loan side, house hunters are deciding to go ahead and lock in deals before rates move higher. On the refinancing side, people are going with bigger loans at a lower rate and using the extra cash to pay for home improvements or reduce debts such as credit card bills.