57% Expect Higher Interest Rates Next Year

After dipping to a two-year low last month, the number of Americans who expect to pay higher interest rates next year has returned to levels found earlier in 2011.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of American Adults shows that 57% believe they will be paying higher interest rates in a year’s time, up eight points from June when 49% felt that way. Prior to last month, this finding ranged from 50% to 59% since July 2009.

Only six percent (6%) expect lower interest rates in a year’s time, while 27% believe they will remain about the same. Another 10% aren’t sure. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Twenty-nine percent (29%) of adults say they are paying higher interest rates now than they were a year ago, up slightly from last month but the highest finding since January. Only 12% say their interest rates are lower than a year ago. Most adults (55%) still say the interest rates they are paying now are about the same as they were last year.

Since April 2009, roughly half of adults nationwide have reported paying about the same interest rates as they were the previous year.

Twenty-eight percent (28%) say they owe more money than they did a year ago, a figure that has not changed in three months.  But only 31% say they owe less money today, the lowest finding in a year. Another 36% say they owe about the same amount of money as they did a year ago.

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The survey of 1,000 Adults was conducted on July 11-12, 2011 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence.  Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC.  See methodology.