The American system where you have a fixed rate for the entire length of the loan is an oddity worldwide, and largely created by post-WW2 housing policy. In mo

The American system where you have a fixed rate for the entire length of the loan is an oddity worldwide, and largely created by post-WW2 housing policy. In most other countries all mortgages are variations on what we'd call ARMs in the U.S: you get a fixed rate for a certain term and then it resets periodically afterwards.