More mortgage borrowers turned in loan applications this week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association, in response to another week of falling interest rates. The MBA’s Mortgage Composite index – a measure of mortgage application volume - rose 2% during the week ended Nov. 23, 2018, while mortgage rates dropped for the third straight week to 5.08%. Refinance applications were more popular as rated declined, making up 40.4% of all requests, an increase from 37.9% the week before.