单项选择题

Ah, the good old days— like last year, when mortgage rates were so low you couldn’’t get a broker to take your calls— they were all too busy processing piles of refis. Now rates on 30-year loans are at 6.5 percent, the highest they’’ve been since the middle of 2002, according to the latest survey by mortgage-finance company Freddie Mac. And many economists, like Freddie’’s Frank Nothaft, expect that upward drift to continue, albeit modestly. Here are tips for dealing with those higher rates in the market now: If you’’re buying a home and looking for a new loan, shop for a fixed-rate deal. The spreads between adjustable-and fixed-rate loans right now are not worth the risk of letting your rates float at a time when the cost of money is on the rise. The rates on new adjustable mortgages are all over 6 percent, too. If you took out one of those scary "option" mortgages that change rates monthly and allow you to defer paying off the principal part of your loan, you could be getting squeezed soon. With rates adjusting up (sometimes monthly), you may find yourself unable to make payments. In that case, use the option of making interest-only payments while you shop for a better loan. You won’’t be building equity, but you won’’t be hurting your credit score either. Look to trade in that option loan for a fixed-rate loan or a more stable variable-rate loan if you can qualify. That would limit the frequency with which your rates could rise. If you’’ve borrowed a substantial amount on a home-equity line of credit, consider replacing it with a fixed-rate second mortgage. Average rates on the variable lines are roughly 7.89 percent; they’’re 7.63 percent for a loan, according to bankrate.com. That means that you can lower your rate slightly, eliminate the possibility that a rate rise will increase your costs and nail down a fixed term so you’’re not paying for those home improvements forever. You could also think creatively on that home-equity line. Some borrowers are saving interest on a month-to-month basis by shuffling balances from their home-equity lines to credit cards offering zero-interest deals. This works, if you’’re vigilant about reading the small print and shifting the money back at the right time. If you want to stick with an open-ended home-equity line of credit, you still might want to trade in your line for a new one. Older home-equity lines aren’’t all as competitively priced as new ones. They might be carrying interest rates of prime plus 2 percentage points or prime plus 3 percentage points. Now you can find new lines of credit with come-on rates like prime plus zero, or even below prime, if you shop around. Those mortgage brokers will take your calls. They want you back. According to the author, you can save interest on a month-to-month basis by shuffling balance form home-equity lines to credit cards offering zero-interest deals only if________.