USA TODAY The number of home buyers applying for mortgages surged by a record amount last week in response to aggressive federal efforts to lower mortgage rates. Financial lobbyists advocated more of the same to stimulate the housing market. Mortgage applications more than doubled in the holiday week ended Nov. 28 from the week before, according to a report Wednesday by the Mortgage Bankers Association. The association's index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, was up 112% on a seasonally adjusted basis from the week earlier. And the refinance index leapt 203%.
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