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.

When lenders pass those increases along by raising the rates we pay for mortgages, credit cards, home equity and auto loans, we spend less making it more difficult for them to raise prices.

Anyone buying a home -- or facing big increases in their adjustable rate mortgage or credit card payments, for that matter – is feeling the effect.

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