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A house under construction is seen between completed houses in a new development in Brambleton, Virginia on August 14, 2024.

Mortgage rates fell for the third week in a row last week, but the rush to refinance took a breather.

Applications to refinance a home loan dropped 15% from the previous week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association's seasonally adjusted index. Volume was, however, 90% higher than the same week one year ago. That is likely due to the 23% surge in demand over the past four weeks, as mortgage rates fell.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($766,550 or less) decreased to 6.50% from 6.54%, with points increasing to 0.60 from 0.57 (including the origination fee) for loans with a 20% down payment.

The 30-year fixed rate has fallen 32 basis points in the past four weeks and is 81 basis points lower than it was a year ago. A basis point is 0.01 percentage point.

"Both mortgage rates and mortgage applications have now stabilized after a few weeks of financial market volatility, which led to a quick drop in mortgage rates," wrote Joel Kan, an MBA economist, in a release. "The other point to note is that yes rates are lower, but they're still 6.5%, which is not low for those borrowers out there with sub five rates."

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