Mortgage applications more than doubled last week, a mortgage bankers’ group said Wednesday, as government bailouts led to sinking interest rates that made refinancing especially more attractive.
In the weekly report, the Market Composite Index – the association’s measure of mortgage loan application volume – surged 112.1% on a seasonally adjusted basis from the week earlier.
On an unadjusted basis, the index increased 51.4% from the previous week; it was down 21.9% from a year earlier, the report said. Results included an adjustment to account for the Thanksgiving holiday.
Rates plummeted following the Fed’s announcement that it would buy debt and mortgage-backed securities from mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae (FNM, Fortune 500) and Freddie Mac (FRE, Fortune 500), according to Orawin Velz, associate vice president of economic forecasting, in a statement.
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