30-year mortgage rates are still averaging a rock-bottom 4%. The applications to purchase homes rose after Thanksgiving to the highest level in four months.

With Freddie Mac's weekly report on home lender offerings released Thursday it showed the typical rate for a 30-year loan at 3.99%, the sixth straight week at or slightly below 4%.  Last year at this time, the 30-year fixed loan averaged 4.61%.

Fifteen-year fixed-rate home loans, a popular option for people refinancing homes, averaged 3.27%, down from last week's 3.3%. A year ago, the 15-year loan averaged 3.96% according to Freddie Mac.

The typical mortgage rate for larger "jumbo" loans are running about a third of a percentage point higher, according to another report this week from the Mortgage Bankers Assn. Jumbo loans are priced higher because lenders can't sell them to Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae These other big government-sponsored mortgage buyer. 

Offering a bit of hope for housing at a time when foreclosures are drawing angry protests and government investigations, the mortgage bankers said applications for loans to buy houses reached the highest level since early August.

Refinances still made up about three-quarters of all applications for home loans, however.