Investing.com - The number of mortgage applications in the U.S. rose sharply for the third straight week last week, as interest rates moved lower, industry data showed on Wednesday.
In a report, the Mortgage Bankers Association said their mortgage market index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, increased by a seasonally adjusted 8.8% in the week ending January 22 to 472.8. That follows a gain of 9.0% to 434.5 in the preceding week.
Refinance applications were behind much of the surge, rising 11% on a seasonally adjusted basis from the previous week.
The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances inched down to 4.02% from 4.06% in the preceding week.
"As a result of more financial market volatility and continued flight to quality by investors, mortgage rates have decreased 18 basis points since the first week of January, 2016, said Joel Kan, an MBA economist.
The survey covers over 75% of U.S. retail residential mortgage applications, according to MBA.