gr8vu

Here's my quick analysis--Since I am fairly certain this is not my long term retirement home and will stay at least 3 and maybe 10-12 years here's my math.

Over 5 yrs I will save as much as 25k in payments over fixed rate which basically covers about half my utility bill. Or covers my 3 teenage sons' car insurance.

After the loan starts resetting in 6 years, the max I will pay in mortgage at the 10 year point is an additional 800 dollars a months. I can afford that mortgage on my current salary so I am willing to take the risk that rates won't go to that extreme for an extended period but again I can afford it now and my salary should increase over 10 years (again worst case if I kept the home and this loan).

I've bought and sold a handful of houses in my military career and stopped doing fixed after the first one. After all the origin of the word mortgage is "death pledge." I plan to have sold it or have it paid off well before I die.

A quote I found years ago--"In the United States a man builds a house to spend his latter years in it, and he sells it before the roof is on" Frenchman De Tocqueville observed this in our culture in 1831...not much has changed.