Cheap Mortgage Rates: Don't Miss Out

With cheap mortgage ratestopping 5 percent for the first time since April 2010, it's time to start getting serious if you're thinking of buying a home. While rates are still historically low, as the government begins to make decisions about what to do with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, you can be certain of one thing -- mortgage interest rates will go up.

Mortgage rates hit what will likely be their low in October 2010, when the average rate was just 4.2 percent. This week average mortgage rates are at 5.2 percent -- a full percentage point higher. What will that mean for a $200,000 mortgage? Your mortgage principal and interest payment will be about $110 per month higher today than it would have been if you bought the house in October, when mortgage rates were 1 percent lower.

You may think you're just not ready to buy because house prices are still falling in your area. That's true for most areas of the country, but you need to ask yourself, is it better to risk that your house may fall a bit in price than to risk mortgages jumping too high for you to be able to afford to buy at all?