/ Source: The Associated Press
Applications for mortgages to buy homes and to refinance dropped last week as mortgage rates pulled away from historic lows.
The Mortgage Bankers Association says overall applications fell 14.4 percent from a week earlier. Applications to refinance tumbled 16.5 percent from the week earlier, while those taken out to purchase homes fell 5 percent last week.
The decline in application volume comes as rates on fixed-rate mortgages jumped because of stronger economic data and doubts about the impact of the Federal Reserve's massive bond-buying program.
Rates had been at or near their lowest levels in decades since spring as investors put money into safer Treasury bonds. That has lowered their yields, which mortgage rates tend to track.
