Looking to lock a mortgage rate? I'm a contributor to the Bankrate.com Mortgage Rate Trend Index and this week's survey results may help give you guidance.

Predicting Conforming Mortgage Rates Only

By way of disclosure, the Bankrate.com survey is for conventional, conforming mortgages only. It does not apply to FHA mortgages nor is the survey specific to mortgage rates in Cincinnati or Washington, D.C, for example. Furthermore, unique property types including Chicago non-warrantable condos, condotels and the 5-10 Properties program may be excluded.

for a real-time rate quote.

Breaking Down The Predictions

Here's the survey panel's mortgage rate predictions:

• 38% predict mortgage rates will increase
• 0% predict mortgage rates will decrease
• 62% predict mortgage rates will remain unchanged

I expect mortgage rates to increase.

My advice not be appropriate for your individual situation and I'm not always right. Ultimately, you may find your time better spent with chickens, monkeys and ducks.

Either way, here's what I told Bankrate.com:

"Stock market gains are bond market losses.  Mortgage rates rise."

If you know what to watch for, you'll see the rate hikes coming.

The Relationship Between Stocks And Bonds

On any given day, you might turn on CNBC and hear an analyst talk about "stock markets gaining and bond markets losing" followed by commentary about how investors are in search of risk and shedding their bond portfolio.

On the next day, however, you could hear the exact opposite analysis -- "stock markets losing and bond markets gaining" because investors changed their mind and are shunning risk in search of safety.

Hear it enough times, and you start to believe that stock markets and bond markets are opposites; when one is up, the other is down. It's a falsehood, though. Stocks and bonds sometimes move in opposite directions.

Not always.  Sometimes.

Right now is one of those times.

Risk-Taking Returns, Dooming Mortgage Rates

Over the past month-and-a-half, global stock markets have been selling off en masse.

A combination of natural disaster, sovereign debt concerns and fear of a global economic slowdown have pushed investors away from stock markets and toward the relative safety of bond markets.

We have to remember that big, fear-based movements are temporary.   Eventually, fear subsides. Otherwise the stock market would still be reeling from 1929, 1987 and 2008.

Fear is rarely as profitable as greed, after all, and once investors acclimate to bad news, they start looking for good news.

"Good" news, by the way, is reason to chase risk; to get back into stocks. It's also one of those times that stocks and bonds move in opposite directions.  Mortgage rates will rise when stock markets rally and there's plenty of reasons to rally right now.

• The housing market should sustain itself post-tax credit
• More than a half-million jobs have already been created this year
• Consumer confidence in the economy is at pre-recession levels

Oh, and it's not just domestic growth, either.  Canada just became the first member of the G-7 to raise its version of the Fed Funds Rate.

The economy is back. Stock markets will be, too

Recommendation : Lock Your Mortgage Rate ASAP

MRV -- Mortgage Rate Velocity -- is as high as its been in a year and rate changes come quickly. If you haven't given a loan application to your loan officer, do it today.

The longer you wait, the more your next loan may cost you because once the stock market starts its rally, it'll be swift. Rates will rise quickly.

Applications-by-phone are a 4-minute process. To give one, call my office at 513-443-2020 or . And be sure to give applications to other loan officers, too. Don't worry -- your credit score won't be damaged if you do it the right way.

Looking for a mortgage rate prediction? I am a weekly participant in the Bankrate.com Mortgage Rate Trend Index and this week's survey may have the answers you need.

Fannie Mae And Freddie Mac Mortgage Rates Only

By way of disclosure, the Bankrate.com survey is for conventional, conforming mortgages only. It does not apply to FHA mortgages nor is the survey specific to mortgage rates in Cincinnati or Milwaukee. Furthermore, unique property types including Chicago non-warrantable condos, condotels and the 5-10 Properties program may be excluded.

for a real-time rate quote.

Breaking Down The Predictions

Here's the group's mortgage rates predictions:

• 24% predict mortgage rates will increase
• 24% predict mortgage rates will decrease
• 52% predict mortgage rates will remain unchanged

I expect mortgage rates to increase.

My advice not be appropriate for your individual situation and I'm not always right. Ultimately, you may find your time better spent with chickens, monkeys and ducks.

Either way, here's what I told Bankrate.com:

"The last three times mortgage rates fell to these levels, it was short-lived and reversed in a hurry. If you haven't locked in yet, consider this Last Call."

In the Mortgage World, the trend is your friend. Ignore past history at your own peril.

First, Why Mortgage Rates Are Still So Low

Next verse, same as the last verse.

Since early-April, we've been talking on the same theme -- mortgage rates benefit when credit markets go haywire, like what Greece's debt crisis has sparked. The cause is something called "safe haven buying".

Alternatively, safe haven buying is known as "flight-to-quality", or "risk aversion".

Regardless of what you call it, though, the patterns is distinguished by a specific trading pattern in which investors sells higher-risk assets in favor of lower-risk assets.

A high-risk asset could be something like a junk bond, or an emerging market's currency. A low-risk asset is something like a government-backed bond, or the U.S. dollar.

So, when credit markets get bad, investors move to the safety of bonds.  And when credit markets get really bad, they move to the safest bonds they can find.

Right now, with all of Europe surrounded by a giant question mark, that "safest place" has become the U.S. market. Everything dollar-denominated is winning.  Mortgage bonds included.

Safe haven buying increases demand for bonds and more demand drives rates lower.

Safe Haven Buying Doesn't Last Forever

European credit strife is shifting U.S. mortgage rates lower, but it's a temporary condition.  Mortgage rates won't stay low like this for long. For a few reasons:

First, over time, markets always return to normal. Fear gets replaced by greed and profit-taking takes hold. Sometimes this happens overnight, sometimes it takes months or years.  But it happens every time.  There is no "new normal". 30-year mortgage rates don't sit below 5 percent forever.

Second, technical trading is still a force on Wall Street. Different from the emotional nature of safe haven buying, technical trading is pattern-based trading, often executed by computer programs.

Technical trading looks for peaks, valleys, and humps in the history of a security's price, and assumes those peaks, valleys and humps will repeat themselves. The computers then make trades based on those assumptions which, in essence, actually causes the pattern to repeat. Think of it like a self-fulfilling prophecy for Wall Street securities.

Right now, we're at a pricing peak and looking down the cliff.

And, lastly, mortgage rates can't stay low like this because the Federal Reserve is holding hundreds of billions of mortgage-backed bonds on its books and, although it's said there's no rush to sell, with so much demand for the bonds, safe haven buying helps the Fed make an orderly exit.

It's tough to dump close to a trillion dollars of supply into a market without causing prices to fall.  Even if it's at a measured pace.

The Prudent Choice Is To Lock Your Mortgage Rate Now

There's very little reason for mortgage rates to drop right now. Markets have squeezed a ton of gains out the European debt scenario. It's time to move into locking position.

MRV -- Mortgage Rate Velocity -- is as high as its been in a year and rate changes come quickly. If you haven't given a loan application to your loan officer, think about doing it today. The longer you wait, the more this next loan may cost you.

Applications-by-phone are a 4-minute process. To give one, call my office at 513-443-2020 or . And be sure to give applications to other loan officers, too. Don't worry -- your credit score won't be damaged if you do it the right way.