When I bought (UK) five years ago, I went for a 10-year fixed rate, which was the longest I could find. Currently very happy with that choice. Shorter fixes were available at slightly lower rates, but at this point I still have 5 years of 2.64% in hand, by which time the house will be close to paid-off.
In my case I went for a 5 year fixed because if I save at the same rate in those 5 years as I have in the last 5 years (which given my mortgage repayments are 75% of the rent I was paying prior, for much more house, shouldn't be too challenging, even with the inflation), then if rates are shit in 5 years I can pay off like 40% of the mortgage after the fixed rate and still have lower payments than I do today.
I almost grabbed an ARM on one refinance because the maximum amount it could jump at each adjustment was 1%.
Years ago my dad took an ARM at 18% because the anti-usury laws limited the maximum it could go to 20% and it turned out to drop each adjustment period after that (80s wheeee)
