According to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s Weekly Applications Survey, demand for loans to buy homes is now 33 percent higher than it was at the same time last year. The improvement comes after another week-over-week increase. It also comes during a week when mortgage rates hit an all-time survey low. Joel Kan, MBA’s associate vice president of economic and industry forecasting, says coronavirus news kept rates down. “Mortgage rates declined to another record low as renewed fears of a coronavirus resurgence offset the impacts from a week of mostly positive economic data, such as June factory orders and payroll employment,” Kan said. “Purchase applications continued their recovery, increasing 5 percent to the highest level in almost a month and 33 percent from a year ago.” In addition to finding purchase demand up from last week, the report found the size of the average loan is rising. In fact, the average purchase loan last week was $365,700 – further evidence that low inventory is driving home prices higher. The MBA’s weekly survey has been conducted since 1990 and covers 75 percent of all retail residential mortgage applications. (source)