All mortgage rates follow one financial index or another to set their pricing. Fixed rate mortgages mirror the US 10-Year Treasury Bond or T-Bill. You can see graphs of this index's activity on financial websites by searching the symbol $tnx. Increases in the interest yield will mean higher fixed mortgage rates and decreases indicate lower fixed rates.

Variable rate loans or ARM loans can be tied to a number of indices, but the most prevalent are The US 1-Year Treasury Bond and the LIBOR or London Inter Bank Daily Rate. If your variable rate loan is tied to one of these loans and you're past the introductory period you can track upcoming changes by looking up these indices and comparing them to where they were when you originally took your mortgage loan.

Home Equity Lines are tied to US Prime Lending Rate, sometimes just called "Prime Rate". This index is more volatile than the others and such loans often have no rate cap at all. In the both 1970's and 80's there were significant rate spikes in the US Prime Lending Rate.

If you're interested in knowing where the mortgage market is going or where it's been you no longer have to rely on vague or innaccurate information, you can just look it up.

Tags: rates banks rate setting trends index prime