The recent surge of mortgage rates to two-year highs will slow down the raging housing recovery, but won't end it, experts say.

The 30-year fixed mortgage rate averaged 4.37 percent in the week ended July 18, up from 3.35 percent in the week ended May 2, according to Freddie Mac.

For a $200,000 home with a 10 percent down payment, the monthly total of principal and interest charges has risen $100 to $925, before taxes and insurance, according to The Wall Street Journal.

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"That's extremely meaningful," Ronald Peltier, CEO of HomeServices of America, which owns real-estate brokerages, told the paper. "It is putting people on the sidelines that were really at the margins of being able to qualify."

But homes will remain affordable compared with historical levels with mortgage rates of up to 6 percent or with prices up to 20 percent higher, economists conclude.

"I don't think rates are going to be an issue in the near term," Richard Smith, CEO of Realogy, which owns Coldwell Banker and Century 21, told The Journal. "You're going to continue to see tight inventory. Pricing is going to continue to go up."

"Supply-demand imbalances still favor sellers, which means price gains should continue despite higher mortgage rates," The Journal concluded. "But those gains would look better if they were supported by an economy that was adding more high-paying jobs. Until that happens, the housing sector faces a less predictable path."

Monday's news that existing home sales fell 1.2 percent in June from May doesn't erase the positive story, housing bulls say.

"There's going to be a few bumps in the road, but overall we expect the housing market to look pretty decent," Michael Feroli, chief U.S. economist at JPMorgan Chase, told Bloomberg.

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