Mortgage rates this week rose to their highest levels in more than nine months, prompting home buyers and refinancing candidates to scramble to lock in whatever rate they can - before they go any higher.

Freddie Mac reported yesterday that average 30-year fixed-rate mortgages reached 7.06 percent this week, marking the first time since mid-June that they sailed above the 7 percent mark. The last time rates were higher than this week's average was May 29, when they stood at 7.07 percent.

The increases in rates have sent shudders through the mortgage banking and real estate communities, which described the past few weeks as rocky and volatile. Seven percent has long been considered the standard, however psychological, for low mortgage rates, and several economists at the close of 1998 said they didn't expect rates to go above 7 percent at all in 1999.