David Stevens, President and CEO of Mortgage Bankers Association, said the purchase market could easily withstand a 4% mortgage rate, which is expected to hit by the end of the year.

Stevens was interviewed for CNBC Squawk Box Friday morning to discuss the upcoming spring housing market.

“As we head into the spring home buying and selling season, the housing comeback is showing signs of accelerating more rapidly than most anybody had thought at this point,” Stevens said.

He added, “The peak housing era of 2005 through 2007, those couple years produced some very dangerous characteristics we can’t allow to ever come back. But the market is clearly improving [now] and could weather rising interest rates should the Federal Reserve start tightening at some point.”