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Mortgage applications shot up 11.1 percent from the week before, according to the ""Mortgage Bankers Association"":http://www.mbaa.org/default.htm.
[IMAGE]The trade group found that mortgage loan volume fell by 12 percent on a seasonally unadjusted basis from the week before.
According to their indices, refinance volume and purchases went up 12 percent and 8 percent, respectively. Purchases fell more than 15 percent on an unadjusted basis, although it stayed 7 percent higher than figures seen at the same time last year.
The MBA said that refinance volume may be overstated this time around, as a result of the Labor Day holiday.
[COLUMN_BREAK]Even so, the refinance share of mortgage activity climbed to 80 percent of total volume, up from 79 percent from the past week.
The adjustable-rate mortgage share of activity meanwhile fell to 4.5 percent of total volume.
Just as volume saw a spike, interest rates for home loans swung low into a valley, with the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage with balances of $417,500 or less dipping to 3.75 percent, down from 3.78 percent.
Rates for 30-year home loans with balances of $417,500 or above fell to 4 percent from 4.05 percent, with those for mortgages backed by the Federal Housing Administration slipping to 3.50 percent from 3.54 percent.
Interest rates for 15-year home loans fell to 3.07 percent from 3.10 percent from the week before, and those for 5-year and 1-year adjustable-rate mortgages plunged to 2.63, down from 2.64 percent, registering a new low in the history of the MBA's survey.
Erin Lantz, director of the Mortgage Marketplace for ""Zillow"":http://www.zillow.com/, ""attributed declines"":https://themreport.com/articles/fixed-rate-mortgages-climb-higher-this-week-zillow-2012-09-11 in mortgage rates to hesitation from investors over Treasury bonds for suddenly wish-washy jobs figures.
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