NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Long-term mortgage rates rose this week, Freddie Mac reported Thursday, putting the interest rates on home loans a full percentage point higher than they were a year earlier.

The rate on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages averaged 6.32 percent for the week ended May 27, up from 6.32 percent the previous week and up from 5.31 percent a year earlier, the mortgage finance firm reported.

The 30-year had 0.6 of a point payable up front, on average, according to Freddie Mac.

The 15-year mortgage climbed to 5.69 percent from last week's 5.67 percent, with 0.6 point payable up front. A year ago, it was 4.73 percent.

One-year Treasury-indexed adjustable rate mortgages (ARM) averaged 3.87 percent, down from 3.99 percent the previous week. A year earlier they averaged 3.63 percent. These loans had an average 0.6 point payable up front.

"Although new home sales fell in April, existing home sales rose to the second highest level on record as homebuyers rushed to close in the face of low, but surely rising, mortgage rates," said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac chief economist, in a statement.

"Current mortgage rates are now a full point above where they were last year, and almost half a point higher than they were last month."

Freddie Mac's reading on average mortgage rates is based on a survey of 125 lenders nationwide.

Freddie Mac (FRE: up $0.80 to $59.08, Research, Estimates), or Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp., is a publicly traded company the government established in 1970 to provide a flow of funds to mortgage lenders. It buys mortgages from banks, bundles them and then resells them as mortgage-backed securities.

Its products, and the products of other similar entities, have become popular as an alternative to government-backed bonds, notably with international investors.