Interest Rates Still Low, but for How Long?

The Fed may have bumped up the short term interest rate that banks pay to borrow money by a quarter-point, but for the rest of us, low interest rates are still here.

Despite months of predictions that interest rates must rise soon, average interest rates for 30-year, fixed rate mortgages slid back down to 4.93 percent in the week ending February 18, according to Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey.

That's close to the record low interest rates of end of last year, which bottomed out at a average 4.71 percent for the week ending December 3.

Average interest rates are expected to rise to 6 percent by the end of the year, pushed up by a long list of factors.