Interest rates will stay low until we come out of recession. Deflation not inflation is our biggest risk. If it were not for the govt programs, FHA, FNMA, and Freddie, there would not be a real estate loan market, or home market, because the banks have no other place to sell the paper. Unfortunatly, because of 9/11, Iraq and all the cultural crap we turned the govt over to a party that over heated the economy and blew up the deficit so we have no reserves to counter the situation we are in now. They did not mean to do it, they simply followed their policitical mantra and thought they were doing the right thing.