Does Warren Buffett, possibly the top financial guru in the world, expect that mortgage rates will increase in 2011? His recent financial transactions give good reason to believe that he does.

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. borrowed $1.5 billion by issuing fixed-rate bonds to pay back adjustable-rate loans. By securing fixed-rate loans at today's interest rates and paying off adjustable-rate debt that may possibly increase in the future, heBuffett is demonstrating his opinion that interest rates, including mortgage rates, are going to rise. Look at current mortgage rates.

Other investors constantly inspect every move "the Oracle of Omaha" makes, and his most recent decisions enforce the feeling that mortgage rates will rise in 2011. In a sense, he is locking in his mortgage, although he's using corporate debt as opposed to a home loan. Lock in your home loan.

Bloomberg reports that the fixed-rate loans Buffett issued includes $750 million of 10-year notes paying 4.25 percent and $375 million of 3-year notes paying 1.5%. Berkshire Hathaway, Buffett's company, also issued $375 million of adjustable-rate bonds at 0.33% higher than the rate offered by the London inter-bank, a commonly used financial index.

Buffett bought a railroad company, Burlington Northern Santa Fe, for the hefty price of $26 billion in November 2009, wagering that a stabilizing economy will boost the net worth of the railroad company. At the time, he called the acquisition an "all-in wager" on the economy, Bloomberg reported.

That insight was evidently ahead of the game. Recent news points to a growing economic picture during the year. U.S. manufacturing increased faster in the month of December than it did in the previous seven months. The index for manufacturing activity, as determined by the Institute for Supply Management, increased to 57 in December, increasing from 56.6 in November. Any number higher than 50 means growth. Unemployment claims last month fell to their lowest point in almost three years and were continuing to decrease for some time before. As confidence in the economy increases, investors are pushing cash into a rising stock market and dumping low-risk Treasure bonds with little return. This causes Treasury prices fall; therefore their yields increase, prompting mortgage interest rates to increase.