If you’re thinking about buying or refinancing a home and wondering how President Obama’s second term in office will affect future mortgage rates, here’s the short answer: It probably won’t.

Although mortgage industry experts speculated that four more years of an Obama administration would mean lower mortgage rates, whereas former Gov. Mitt Romney’s election would mean higher ones, their interest rate theories aren’t much more than guesswork, simply because of the limited influence that presidents have on mortgage rates.