Welcome to the jungle where there is something new every day, some of it good and some not so. Mortgage rates are as volatile and changeable as the weather. According to the mortgage rates mavens we will continue to enjoy affordable mortgages this spring, making it a good time for most of us to buy or refinance a home. Over the past eight months mortgage rates have moved up a little, then down a little, but the average cost of almost all types of mortgages has remained below 6.5%, well below in most cases, since mid-August. Mortgage rates comparison charts show many lenders offering rates well below 6% with modest fees of $1,000 or less. It would be great if mortgages were have remained as cheap as they were four years ago when rates bottomed out at 5.28%, the lowest they've been. But today’s mortgage rates are still less than the 7% or 8% we were paying during the mid- to late-'90s, and the double-digit rates we were charged throughout the '80s and early '90s. Anyone with even average credit can expect home loans to cost less than last spring and summer, when 30-year fixed-rate loans were climbing towards a peak of nearly 7% in late June. Freddie Mac, the government chartered company that buys mortgages from lenders, anticipates 30-year fixed mortgage rates average 6.2% this year and 6.4% in 2008. A survey of major lenders taken on April 18 found the following averages: o 30-year fixed-rate loan, the most popular way to pay for a house, costs 6.29%, down from an average of 6.6% last April. o 15-year fixed-rate loan costs 6.02%, two-tenths-of-a-point less than this time last year. o 30-year jumbo loan, for more than $417,000, costs 6.59%, down two-tenths of a point. That means you will pay $618 a month for every $100,000 you borrow with an average, 30-year, fixed-rate loan. Your payments would cost $21 a month less than last April, and only $64 more than for the same loan in June 2003, when mortgage rates were at record lows. The cost of adjustable-rate loans hasn’t declined as much since last summer and they cost about the same, or even a little more, than last April. A survey found a 30-year ARM with an initial rate guaranteed for: o Five years costs 6.11%, almost a tenth-of-a-point lower than a year ago. o One year costs 6.00%, a tenth-of-a-point higher.