It is not surprising that mortgage rates are continuing to climb. But Freddie Mac's Weekly Primary Mortgage Market Survey for the week ended November 3 showed the largest changes in all categories that have been recorded during all of 2005.

With a few exceptions, over the last 10 months rates have tended to move, either up or down, by three to nine basis points. Last week each of the four mortgage products tracked in the survey were up double digits from the previous week.

Both the 30-year and the 15-year fixed mortgage rates jumped 16 points with the 30-year averaging 6.31 percent and the 15-year 5.85 percent. Fees and points remained relatively low, unchanged at 0.5 for each type of mortgage.

The 5/1-year ARM increased by13 basis point from 5.63 percent to 5.76 percent while fees and points declined from 0.6 to 0.5. The biggest change was in the 1-year ARM which was up 17 basis points to 5.09 percent. This was the first time that the 1-year had topped 5 percent since March 2002 when the rate for the month averaged 5.06 percent. Fees and points did drop from 0.7 to 0.5 for the week.

The Mortgage Bankers Associations Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ended November 4 reported that mortgage loan applications were up slightly on both a seasonally adjusted and unadjusted basis - 2.3 and 1.0 percent respectively. Mortgage activity, however, was down 9.2 percent as compared with the corresponding week in 2004.

The housing purchase index which measures applications for purchase money mortgages was up by 6.4 percent from the previous week but still dropped 3.6 percent below the level for the same week in early November 2004. This was the first time in six months that the 2005 index was running below 2004 levels.

Refinancing represented 41.7 percent of total mortgage activity, down from 43.6 percent the previous week. ARMs represented 31.6 percent of all mortgage applications, up 2.2 percent from the previous week.

MBA rates ran close to those reported by Freddie Mac. The 30-year fixed rate mortgage increased to 6.31 percent from 6.21 percent the previous week with points, including the origination fee, increasing to 1.37 from 1.27.

The average contract rate for 15-year mortgages was up 10 basis points to 5.85 percent with points increasing from 1.27 to 1.36 and the ARM (which the MBA survey has reported above 5 percent for several weeks) at 5.45 percent from 5.39 percent with points decreasing from 0.99 to 0.96. All MBA figures are for 80 percent LTV loans.