Mortgage rate averages have started the week with a bang, reaching their highest points so far in 2013. The trend has been building so far on the climb from the end of the previous week, creating a comfortable floor for rates starting the week of May 20. The 30-year mortgage rate average is now comfortably embedded in the range of 3.625 and 3.75 percent for loans currently offered to new homeowners and buyers. Those who are winning loans at the lower side of the range are giving up costs in the form of points being paid down up front. So most borrowers are seeing a more expensive market now, one way or the other.

As a result of the above, some market watchers are now pondering of the climb toward the significant 4 percent mark has finally arrived. Many advisers are recommending to their potential borrowers that instead of waiting for the rate averages to drop again to instead think in terms of ways to administratively reduce rates offered. This could be through electronic loan payment processing versus paper, buying down a rate with the purchase of points, or a bigger down payment. Whether the climb slows down will depend heavily on tomorrow’s meeting at the Federal Reserve and the minutes that come out of the Federal Reserve's Federal Open Market Committee discussion.

Much of the gossip and expectation is for signs that the Federal Reserve will begin its long-awaited slowdown of buying mortgage backed securities to support the economy. The “winding down of quantitative easing” when actually triggered is expected to put the liability risk wholly back on the markets. The stock market is expected to dampen as a result, slowing down a growth a bit. But a retraction is definitely due given the spike of the Dow over 15,300 in May 2013.

So, as noted above, the 30-year mortgage average is currently locked into a range of 3.625 to 3.75 percent, and favoring the higher side for loans without points. The 15 year counterpart is unchanged at 2.75 to 2.875 percent, but loans offered are on the high side of the range. For those who can access them, the FHA or Veteran’s Administration loans are the way to go still at 3.25 percent, and the 5-year adjustable rate mortgage sits low at 2.625 to 3.25 percent.