Canada is distinctly different than the US. I was also surprised when I realized this difference. The scary part of this all is that even though folks with good credit were able to taken advantage of full-term fixed rate mortgages (i.e. prime borrowers), the US still endured the housing bust long after the majority of the sub-prime borrowers defaulted.

I'm not sure about other Commonwealth countries, but Canada definitely does not have this option. Our mortgages have a specific mortgage rate term (usually 3-5 years), separate from the life-time of the mortgage (usually 20-30 years; the 35 was/will be no longer be available). This means that interest rate fluctuations are more devastating when they rise for those who put little to no money down on their expensive housing purchases in Canada recently.