Mortgage lending to finance home purchases increased a hefty 32.2 percent from the first quarter to the second quarter of 2011, helping to offset a huge drop in refinance activity. Housing sales jumped 43.6 percent during the second quarter, although the housing market in 2011 is still considerably slower than it was a year ago. Conditions looked better in the second quarter largely because the first quarter of 2011 was one of the worst on record for housing sales and home-purchase lending. Fewer than 1 million new and existing home sales were reported during the first quarter of 2011, yielding a record low of just... [Includes two data charts]