Many people associate ARMs with the subprime mortgages that helped spark the 2008 financial crisis. However, the ARMs and nonprime mortgages of today are not the same as the subprime mortgages that played a role in the Great Recession. In fact, today ARMs are less risky than fixed-rate mortgages, and the average ARM borrower looks nothing like the less-creditworthy subprime borrowers targeted by predatory lenders during the early aughts.