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Mortgage rates soar
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June 17, 1999: 12:07 p.m. ET
But lower rates expected in coming weeks, Freddie Mac says
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Mortgage rates soared this week amid lingering inflation jitters, mortgage firm Freddie Mac reported Thursday.
For the week ending June 18, the average rate on U.S. 30-year fixed-rate mortgages was 7.65 percent, its highest level since June of 1997. That compares with last week's 7.51 percent and 6.94 percent one year ago.
Fifteen-year loans climbed to 7.26 percent, the highest rate in about two years, from 7.13 percent the week before. The rate for these mortgages averaged 6.62 percent for the same period last year.
One-year adjustable-rate mortgages rose to 5.94 percent from last week's 5.92 percent. A year ago, the rate was 5.68 percent.
(Click here to see a breakdown of average mortgage rates by U.S. region.)
Robert Van Order, chief economist for Freddie Mac, was upbeat about future rate levels.
"Although Freddie Mac's weekly survey showed mortgage rates rising, they actually began to fall off after the Consumer Price Index was released yesterday," he said. "As a result, we think that next week's survey results will be lower."
The economist expects mortgage rates to hover around 7.5 percent as the financial markets wait to see what the Fed will do at the end of the month. 
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