Mortgage rates rise amid falling housing marketINTEREST RATE ACTIVITY

Mortgage rates rose, but remain trapped in a narrow range amid evidence that the housing market still has room to fall.

The benchmark 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage rose 3 basis points, to 6.32 percent, the Bankrate.com national survey of large lenders found. A basis point is one-hundredth of 1 percentage point. The mortgages in this week's survey had an average total of 0.26 discount and origination points. One year ago, the mortgage index was 6.73 percent; four weeks ago, it was 6.29 percent.

The 15-year, fixed-rate mortgage rose 5 basis points, to 6.05 percent. The 5/1 adjustable-rate mortgage rose 8 basis points, to 6.24 percent.

Neither bulls nor bears gained the upper hand For six weeks, the average rate on the 30-year fixed has been stuck in the range of 6.27 percent to 6.32 percent. There hasn't been sufficiently bullish news to toss rates into the air, nor suitably bearish news to slam them into the ground.

Things aren't going well in the house construction and real estate industries, though. Building permits for new houses are way down, home resales continue to drop, and so do prices.

The number of building permits issued in April was 28 percent lower than in April 2006, and 9 percent lower than in March, the Commerce Department reported. Building permits are an indicator of the level of construction to expect in future months.

The data on housing starts weren't as bad. Starts last month were 16 percent below the level of April 2006 and 3 percent above March. Resales of houses and condominiums fell in the first three months of this year compared with the same period a year before, the National Association of Realtors reported. Existing home sales were down 6.6 percent, and the median price fell 1.8 percent.

Mortgage tip: Avoid a mortgage with a lot of built-in risk, such as a low down payment.