Mortgage Rates May Stay on the Up Escalator in July

July mortgage rates forecast

Mortgage rates are likely to rise in July, extending a seven-month streak.

High inflation, and the Federal Reserve’s efforts to control it, have driven mortgage rates upward. The same factors may push them even higher in July and over the next few months. Rates will stop climbing someday — but probably not this summer or fall.

Inflation is behind rising rates

Higher interest rates tend to accompany high inflation, and prices have been rising at above an 8% annual rate for three months in a row. The Consumer Price Index stood at 8.6% in May (the most recent data available).