For the fourth time in five weeks mortgage rates fell to a new record low bringing the average rate for a 30-year fixed loan down to 4.56 percent which is down from 4.57 last week.
According to a report released yesterday by the Mortgage Bankers Association overall applications for mortgages increased nearly 7.6 percent from a week earlier.
Furthermore, applications to purchase homes rose 3.4 percent which was fueled by an 8-percent rise in government purchase applications and applications to refinance home loans also rose and climbed 8.6 percent.
Refinance applications hit their highest level since April of last year making up nearly 79.4 percent of all applications.
Mortgage rates have been falling since mid-April because investors started pouring money into the safety of U.S. Treasury bonds over concerns regarding the European debt problems and the health of the global economy. By doing so this has caused yields on those bonds to fall and long-term fixed mortgage rates usually tend to track those yields.