U.S. mortgage applications increased last week even as home borrowing costs jumped with interest rates on some 30-year fixed-rate loans reaching their highest levels in more than seven years, the Mortgage Bankers Association said on Wednesday.

The Washington-based group’s seasonally adjusted index on requests for a loan to buy a home and to refinance an existing home rose 2.9 percent to 352.5 in the week ended Sept. 21.

Interest rates on 30-year conforming mortgages, whose balances are $453,100 or less, averaged 4.97 percent, which was the highest since April 2011. Last week, they averaged 4.88 percent.