Mortgage Interest Rates Start to Yo-yo

With mortgage interest rates traveling for months between around 4.2% to around 4.45%, mid-December suddenly brought new spikes with rates spiking as high as 5.19%, a six-month high. The sudden yo-yo has left many consumers (and even experts) scratching their heads: Are mortgage interest rates really going up? Tara-Nicholle Nelson of our sister site Walletpop, looks at the yo-yo'ing rates and counsels up-to-the-minute vigilance-maybe even negotiating with sellers to pay discount points.

Mortgage interest rates have never -- seriously never -- been lower than they were this year. Right around the second week of November, interest rates on a 30-year-fixed rate loan dropped to 4.17%, according to Fannie Mae -- by all accounts, the lowest they've ever been in the 40 years or so that industry organizations have been keeping track. That was the 5th consecutive week of record low rates -- rates that were so low, people with "good" rates started refinancing because that week's 3.57% on 15-year loans meant the payment was barely higher than the payment they'd had on their 6%, 30-year fixed mortgage.