It’s another seemingly insignificant slide for CD buyers this week, with rates declining slightly, all the way up-and-down the CD ladder.

BankingMyWay.com has the scoop. This week, 90-day CDs are down from 0.69% to 0.66% from the last week in May. Six-month CDs are off, from 0.98% to 0.96% while one- and two-year CDs are down from 1.32% to 1.30%, and from 1.57% to 1.56%, respectively. Further up the hill, five-year CDs fell from 2.25% to 2.22% from week-to-week.

While CD rates are indeed low, some perspective is in order. Sure, it’s great to earn big rates of 4.0% or even 5.0%, but in recent years, those great rates came in periods of higher inflation, thus eroding the returns investors were pocketing. But with the Consumer Price Index actually down for the past 12 months (by 0.7%), the buying power of your CDs principal actually rises, so thanks to zero inflation, your CD investment is doing better than you might think.

With a key Federal Reserve Board inflation tracker showing no rise in inflation on the horizon, that scenario should continue.

That’s the good news.

The not-so-good news is that spreads between the low-and and high-end of the CD spectrum continues to widen, this increasing the chances of investors opting for four-year or five-year CDs and turning their back on relatively lower earning three- and six-month CDs. That gap, at about 1.05% for the top six-month CD rates and the top five-year CD rates at the beginning of 2009, has since widened to 1.56% through the end of May. If you lock in a higher-end CD rate, and rates rise, you could lose out – and that’s an increasing concern among regular CD investors.

Some additional good news -- you can hustle up better CD rates, but your best bet is to keep your search local. Community banks and credit unions are overwhelmingly offering better rates than the big bank behemoths. To find your best deal, visit BankingMyWay’s CD rate tracker.

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