Demand for US home loans rose last week as a decline in 30-year fixed mortgage rates to a three-week low boosted applications for refinancing, the Mortgage Bankers Association said on Wednesday. Average 30-year mortgage rates fell 0.19 percentage point to 5.17 percent in the week ended July 31, the lowest since 5.05 percent in the July 10 week. The drop in borrowing costs pushed refinance applications up 7.2 percent to 1,996.7 last week, lifting total loan requests by 4.4 percent to 517.3, based on the industry group's seasonally adjusted indexes. Although the refi gauge has jumped 35 percent from its June low, it remains well below the 6,000 level that it had topped for five weeks around the time 30-year mortgage rates sank to a record low of 4.61 percent in March. Purchase loan requests, which have been stuck in a narrow range for months, rose just 0.9 percent last week to 264.4. Despite a handful of surprisingly upbeat sales and price reports indicating a bottom, a swift rebound in the worst housing market since the Great Depression is not on the horizon, industry analysts agree. “Most folks are hopeful, based on all the numbers we've been seeing, that we've got a floor here and we're going to start seeing a long, slow recovery,” said Jonathan Corr.
