Thanksgiving week isn’t usually a popular time to buy a home, but most of this year’s economic numbers are second to none, especially in the pandemic-plagued housing market.

Mortgage applications to buy a home jumped 9% last week from the previous week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s seasonally and holiday-adjusted index. Purchase requests were 28% higher than a year ago.

“Purchasing activity continued to post impressive year-over-year gains, with the conventional and government segments of the market posting another week of growth,” said Joel Kan, associate vice president of forecasting economic and industrial MBA. “Housing demand remains strong, and despite extremely tight inventories and rising prices, home sales are at their highest pace in more than a decade.”

Rapidly rising prices caused the average purchase loan amount to hit $ 375,000 last week, the highest since the MBA survey was launched in 1990. Low mortgage rates aren’t just a problem. emotional motivation for buyers, they also give them more purchasing power and help them inflate prices.

The average contractual interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with compliant loan balances ($ 510,400 or less) remained unchanged at 2.92% last week, a record high, with points declining at 0.31 against 0.35 (including set-up costs) for loans with a down payment of 20%. This rate was 105 basis points higher a year ago.

Home loan refinancing requests fell 5% for the week, but were 102% higher than a year ago.

“The ongoing wave of refinancing has been beneficial for homeowners looking to lower their monthly payments during this difficult economic time brought on by the pandemic,” Kan said, adding that the mortgage industry is on the verge of its strongest year of business. creations since 2003.