Mortgage rates reversed direction yet again last week; the only exception to a general rate increase was the drop reported for the 1-year ARM in the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) survey.

Freddie Mac�s Weekly Primary Mortgage Survey for the week ended July 7 reported that the 30-year fixed rate mortgage averaged 5.62 percent, up from 5.53 the week before. Fees and points were unchanged at 0.6. The 15-year was at 5.20 percent compared to 5.12 percent for the week ended June 30 and fees and points increased from 0.6 to 0.7.

The hybrid 5/1 ARM had the sharpest increase from 5.06 percent to 5.19 percent with fees and points also up to 0.7 from 0.6. The 1-year ARM went from 4.24 percent to 4.33 percent.

The MBA reported that the average 30-year fixed rate mortgage contract interest rate in its survey (which is for the week ended July 8) increased .04 percent from the previous week to 5.62 percent. The 15-year rate was up to 5.21 percent from 5.18. The 1-year ARM did decrease slightly from 4.60 percent to 4.56.

Mortgage application activity dropped 7.2 percent from the previous week, possibly because of the holiday shortened work week, but was still running ahead of the same week in 2004 by 22 percent.

The refinancing share of mortgage applications fell off .6 percent but was still a strong 45.1 percent. The ARM share of activity decreased to 27.9 percent from 30.7 the previous week.