“Low mortgage rates and the recovering economy continue to boost the demand for homes, even as record-low supply levels push prices higher,” said Bob Broeksmit, MBA president and CEO. “Applications to buy a home increased for the second time in three weeks, and MBA expects purchase mortgage originations to rise to a record of $1.7 trillion in 2021. Refinance activity remains strong this spring, but applications fell for the first time in four weeks.”

According to the latest data released Thursday by Freddie Mac, the 30-year fixed-rate average declined to 2.95% with an average 0.7 point. (Points are fees paid to a lender equal to 1% of the loan amount. They are in addition to the interest rate.) It was 3% a week ago and 3.15% a year ago. The 30-year fixed average has hovered below 3% for five of the past six weeks.

Freddie Mac, the federally chartered mortgage investor, aggregates rates from around 80 lenders across the country to come up with weekly national averages. It uses rates for high-quality borrowers with strong credit scores and large down payments. Because of the criteria, these rates are not available to every borrower.