We were not going for any weird mortgage situations. We wanted a fixed-rate mortgage. Even though banks were ready to give us half a million dollars, we weren't willing to accept it. I am a bookkeeper because I am financially prudent.

The 30-year [fixed-rate mortgage] came in under 6 percent for the last 22 weeks of this year. As a matter of fact, mortgage rates in 2004 averaged around 5.84 percent, the second lowest annual rate ever recorded in the history of Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey.

So far this year, fixed-rate mortgage rates have risen only slightly. Long-term mortgage rates are only marginally higher than they were two months ago.

Freddie Mac's own economic forecast calls for a mild and gradual increase in 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rates to about 6 percent by the end of the year. Low mortgage rates will sustain a brisk housing market, leading to record home sales and single-family construction this year.

We are coming home from the hospital and I'm like, 'I've got to call this guy,' with my 1-day-old baby in the back seat.

He was surprised that I knew about Egyptian culture and politics.