[Tiktaalik]

Variable rates are bad in those rare years where rates spike upwards, but the data shows that in general, variable rate mortgages are more affordable than fixed rate mortgages (which are a premium), which is why they're pretty popular.

The thing that makes them not painful in bad times is that often the payments stay fixed, and the extra interest is tacked onto the end (meaning that you are gaining more to pay). (you can get a mortgage where the payments do immediately change as the rate changes)

That being said it is possible to hit the "trigger rate" where your fixed monthly payments are no longer even covering interest alone, and then the bank will give you a call to make your payments go up.

[ghaff]

(In the US), the thing with fixed rate mortgages is that they're predictable which has a lot of value too even if you could do better with ARM if things align. And if rates go down--not that that was likely over the past at least 10 or so years, you could always refinance to a lower rate. I did have a home equity line of credit for a while--which was variable--but fortunately during a pretty low interest rate period.