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After a week where seven more U.S. banks were shuttered by federal regulators (six in Illinois alone), bank investors were looking for some good news from the mortgage rate sector.

Lo and behold, it was good news that they got, with mortgage rates declining across the board, according to the BankingMyWay weekly national mortgage rate tracker. For the week, 30-year fixed-rate mortgages were down from 5.50% to 5.30%; while 15-year fixed rate mortgages fell from 4.99% last week to 4.81% this week. Longer-term adjustable rate mortgages declined, as well. Five-year ARS plummeted from 5.12% to 4.78%. And three-year ARMs fell from 5.05% to 4.87%, giving anxious ARM mortgage holders some breathing room for another week.

Only one-year ARMs crashed the mortgage party, with rates climbing from 4.22% to 4.42% for the week.

Optimists might point to the good karma generated by the weekly survey from the Mortgage Bankers Association, which pegged weekly mortgage applications as being up 11%, thus reversing weekly declines that have seen waning enthusiasm for mortgage applications in recent weeks.

The MBA also reports that refinancings were up for the week (at plus 15%), signaling that homebuyers seem to be ignoring the economic “greens shoots versus dead weeds” argument that seems to be so compelling to economists and to the national media. Certainly, key stimulators like a continued increase in U.S. home foreclosures and great tax credit deals for new homeowners appear to be spurring higher interest in new home purchases as we hit the height of the summer buying season.

Or, maybe homebuyers are reading some tea leaves of their own – indicators, perhaps, that now really is the time to buy before home prices start rising again. According to a brand new survey from the real estate valuation firm Clear Capital, home prices have inched back up again in three of the nation’s four regions. Topping that list, housing prices in the Midwest rose 5.3% over the previous quarter, with the largest gains in hard-hit places like Cleveland, Ohio and Pittsburgh, PA. Clear Capital says the gains represent the first upward spike in home values since 2006.

Home prices in the South (up 2.0%) and Northeast (0.1%) also reversed multiple-year average declines, on a quarter-to-quarter basis, Clear Capital reports. The Western U.S. typified by Las Vegas’ -12% drop in home prices for the quarter, continues to struggle. Overall, the region was down 0.7% for the quarter.

Check out the survey for yourself.

Going forward, the housing market is once again at the mercy of economic events, most notably those man-made by politicians in Washington considering a second stimulus package (which would commit the U.S. to even more debt) and trading markets in New York where lethargy and disinterest rule the day. (As one CNBC reporter noted: “people aren’t investing because there is no reason to invest”.)

Yet with no big, solid news on the horizon, expect mortgage rates to either decline slightly or stay the same, at least until the next economic shockwave hits.

But right now, it’s still relatively stable on the mortgage rate front.

As always, for the best deals on mortgage rates, visit the BankingMyWay rate search.

— For more ways to save, spend, invest and borrow, visit MainStreet.com.