Arizona Real Estate Notebook

30-year fixed-rate mortgage, average in Western U.S. for week ending May 10, 2007. Blue line is Freddie Mac forecast made 5/8/2007.

“Mortgage rates inched up this week following the Federal Open Market Committee statement reiterating that the predominant concern remains the risk that inflation will fail to moderate as expected,” said Frank Nothaft, vice president and chief economist at Freddie Mac. “However, as long as core inflation continues to trend downward and economic growth remains sub-par it is unlikely that we will see any big movement in mortgage rates.