Up ... from unbelievable and sustained (contrived) lows.
If anyone finds a rise of even partial percentage points in any way catastrophic then the have overstretched themselves.
I remember 15% mortgage rates when the UK left the previous broken European idea. The world does not end.
Low interest rates and ever-inflating property values ultimately make future generations pay for the party. It has to end at some point (assuming we don't want to follow the Japanese "inherit the family mortgage" model.
"Higher mortgage rates could push buyers off the fence -- increasing demand, increasing prices and increasing home equity so that more people can sell their homes," says Joel Naroff, president of Naroff Economic Advisors in Holland, Pennsylvania.
That is the kind of pure BS baloney we have learnt to expect from "economists".
How do you tell who is an economist? Find someone who has been wrong about everything for the past 30+ years, who's failed to see any major change in any market conditions until after it's happened. That's an economist.