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Mortgage rates keep falling this week . Could they have peaked after steadily increasing for two years?

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Mortgage rates have plunged more than a quarter of a point over the past five weeks, retreating back towards where they were in late April and early May.

Our latest survey of major lenders found the average cost for a 30-year fixed-rate loan – the most popular way to pay for a house – fell to 6.65% this week. That’s 0.12 percentage points lower than last week and 0.27 percentage points below the peak of 6.93% the last week of June.

More importantly it raises the possibility that mortgages may be leveling off after steadily rising for more than two years – and doing it at very reasonable rates.

While rates are still higher than they’ve been in four years, they’re risen less than a point-and-a-half from the record low reached three years ago. And we are certainly no where near the double-digit rates of the ‘80s and early ‘90s.

Interest rates have steadily risen because the Federal Reserve Bank fights inflation by raising interest rates.

With consumer prices rising more quickly than they have in a decade, the Fed has repeatedly raised the interest rate it charges banks to borrow money.

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