Mortgage Applications Surge
Purchase applications were up 12%, compared with a 1% fall the previous week.
Meanwhile, the refinance index was up 11%, compared to a 5% rise the previous week.
Paul Diggle, a property economist at Capital Economics, told Business Insider that the rise in mortgage applications coincides with the first week-on-week decline in 30-year mortgage rates in 10 weeks. The 30-year mortgage rate sits at 4.51% as of January 9.
Most of the rise in mortgage rates occurred prior to the Fed's December 18 announcement that it would taper down its monthly asset purchase program to $75 billion a month.
That being said, the overall trend in mortgage applications has still been down. Earlier this week, the MBA lowered its forecast on 2014 mortgage originations by $7 billion to $1.12 trillion, based on declining mortgage application activity and rising interest rates.