Henry Ramirez

If you are a home buyer who is dependent on a good interest rate to qualify for a home, or you're a homeowner considering refinancing to lower your interest rate, or you're a Realtor working with buyers, you might consider locking in your mortgage interest rate while they're still below or at 5.00 percent for a 30-year fixed rate.

The reason is inflation is about to get out of control. The cost of goods is going to skyrocket, and they'll take mortgage interest rates up with them.

It defies reason that oil can go up 30 percent in a year and not impact prices more than it has. Not counting the majority of goods that arrive by boat, seventy percent of our merchandise is trucked across the U.S.A. in diesel vehicles that cost over $1,300 to fill up.

The airlines are feeling the bite. To pay for jet fuel, American Airlines has just announced a $15 charge for the first checked bag.

And anyone with a growling stomach knows food is more expensive, especially milk and grains.

Using the methodology from a Wall Street Journal article of Labor Bureau consumer prices in 2006 compared to 2007-2008, Jennifer Openshaw took the conclusions one step further to create tables of estimated inflation rates.

The results are terrifying - everything is up except clothing. Gas prices - 36 percent. Utilities - 16.6 percent. Food - 10 percent. Healthcare - 8.6 percent. Housing - 6.5 percent.

Housing - up 6.5 percent?????

Wait a minute. Didn't the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight just say that home prices fell 1.7 percent for the first quarter? The largest price decline on record?

What's going to drive housing up? Rents. If you're not buying, you gotta live somewhere.

All that money you're saving by not buying is going to be chewed up by higher rents.

Several issues are driving rents up:

1. Fewer new homes are being built - tapering off to half as many as 2006.

    

2. Mortgage lenders are tightening standards and giving even A-paper loans cavity scrutiny that would make a San Quentin jailer blush.

    

3. Home sales are slowing.

    

4. We've lost over a quarter million jobs Q1. People are scared.