High mortgage rates send homebuyers scrambling for relief

LOS ANGELES — Mortgage rates are more than double what they were a year ago, so many homebuyers are looking for ways to put off some of the pain for a few years.

The trend has driven adjustable-rate mortgages, or ARMs, to the highest usage in over a decade.

A recent snapshot by the Mortgage Bankers Association showed that ARMs accounted for 12.8% of all home loan applications in the week ended Oct. 14. The last time these loans made up a bigger share of all mortgage applications was in the first week of March 2008.

At the start of the year ARMs represented only 3.1% of all mortgage applications. The average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage then was 3.22%, while last month that rate topped 7% — the highest since 2002.