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I am a regular participant in the Bankrate.com Mortgage Rate Trend survey and this week's survey is now available.

The Bankrate.com survey is for conforming mortgages only and does not apply to FHA mortgages, VA mortgages, or jumbo mortgages.  However, because I lend on all of these loan types in all 50 states, you can email me for a rate quote anytime.

Anyway, here are the group's predictions for the next 30 days:

I am predicting that rates will rise over the next 30 days, but don't necessarily follow my advice when choosing whether to lock a rate, or float it.  My advice may not be appropriate for your individual situation.

From the Bankrate.com survey:

"Market fears shift from inflation to deflation.  Rates rise."

I love to talk about inflation and its impact on mortgage rates.  In the book of personal financial education every American should get, it's an important and often-overlooked chapter.

As the opposite of inflation, deflation can be equally important.  When deflation is present in the economy, prices and wages chase each other lower instead of higher.  This leads to a myriad of things, none of which are good for the economy:

• Consumers delay purchases, waiting for prices to fall
• Businesses delay capital investments, wary of falling revenues
• Workers loses jobs as industry reduces capacity

If the economy was a stock, deflation would be the proverbial falling knife that nobody wants to catch.

And now, with the Cost of Living index falling farther last month than it had in any month since 1947, folks on Wall Street are running scared, piling their cash into the safest places possible.  Stock markets sold off yesterday, cash flowed straight to government bonds. Plus, it didn't help that the minutes from the Fed's meeting last month showed that Bernanke & Co. expect the economic slump to be somewhat prolonged. 

As result -- again -- mortgage bonds turned into Flyover Country, the middle ground of the market over which investors just bypassed.  Mortgage rates are up on lack of demand for mortgage bonds.

However, if there is any lesson we've learned this year, it's that markets don't move to the beat of just one drum.  There are an uncountable number of mortgage rate influences and markets can snap just like that. 

To know what's happening in the mortgage markets now, get near-real time market updates from me @mortgagereports on Twitter.

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Dan Green is an active loan officer. Email or call 513-443-2020. Dan is on Twitter at @mortgagereports.