Fed Boosts Key Interest Rate for 10th Time

The Federal Reserve on Tuesday boosted a key interest rate for a 10th time and signaled that more rate hikes were likely as the central bank keeps pushing borrowing costs higher to contain inflation. Economists are not looking for mortgage rates to suddenly begin surging. They are forecasting that the 30-year mortgage, currently at 5.82 percent, will be around 6.25 percent by the end of this year and probably around 6.5 percent in the summer of 2006, still a historically low level for mortgage rates.