RENEE MONTAGNE, Host: NPR's Tamara Keith has more.</s>TAMARA KEITH: Tom LaMalfa is a consultant who has been watching the industry for 30 years.</s>RENEE MONTAGNE, Host: From any historical context, it's - we're at the bottom end, the way-bottom end of the range over the last - say, three decades.</s>TAMARA KEITH: Lawrence Yun, chief economist at the National Association of Realtors, says we could see 6 percent mortgages by year-end.</s>RENEE MONTAGNE, Host: What will be critical in the second half of the year for the housing market is whether or not there will be other, new support factors coming into the marketplace.</s>TAMARA KEITH: Tamara Keith, NPR News, Washington.
The Federal Reserve has stopped buying up mortgages, something it began doing during the financial crisis to prop up the housing sector. Mortgage rates have been creeping up in recent days. The Fed has promised to step back in if the market encounters serious problems, but analysts are hoping the market can function again on its own.