What really spooked the markets this week was when President Trump pretty much out of nowhere and against the advice of Gary Cohn, began to tweet about applying tariffs on steel and aluminum, which triggered a sell-off of 420 points Thursday March 1st and Friday down another 390 at the open to only close down approximately 70 points. The good news out of that was the 10-year treasury dropped to under 2.85 which helped mortgage rates. Although, it may be only a temporary decline.

Where are mortgage rates headed from here?As a result, many investors are getting out of equities for the security of precious metals and government bonds.

The fact is mortgage rates did rise for the eighth consecutive week according to the Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS), but information is gathered at the beginning} of the week.

Experts still contend that mortgage rates are still on course to go higher in the near future. One reason for that is because Jerome Powell did lay out a really upbeat perspective of the U.S. economy, guiding lots of financial market investors and money managers to feel that three rate hikes is a 95-percent certainty in 2018-with a solid chance at four rate increases.

This is why mortgage rates will be on the rise. It is all due to the federal funds rate being pushed higher and back to normalization like it was before the financial crisis. The housing crisis was caused by irresponsible lending practices.

Approved and Want to Lock Your Rate?You may want to lock in the rate now ahead of any jump in interest rates.

Based on data from the Freddie Mac PMMS, the average rate on a 30-year fixed rate, has gone up forty-eight basis points dating back to the start of the year. Industry experts are signaling for an additional 50-basis point rise prior to the start of 2019.