Mortgage Applications Leap 48%

Mortgage applications skyrocketed last week, shooting up 48% from the previous week, and 124.6% over the same week last year, according to a Mortgage Bankers Association’s survey. The borrowing blowout was prompted by falling mortgage rates, which left the 30-year fixed-rate at its lowest level since June 2003, the Wall Street Journal reports. The survey included about half of all US mortgage applications.

Some 83.2% of all applications were refinancing, up from 76.9% the previous week, and the share of applications for ARMs dropped from 1.1% to 0.8%. (Read more mortgage stories.)