Spring is right around the corner. OK, it’s really a month off. But the signs are here: longer days, melting snow and — if you live in a neighborhood like mine — sprouting For Sale signs.

I won’t be surprised if this spring’s housing market becomes one of the hottest ever. Mortgage rates are still very low, making it a good time to buy a home or refinance an older mortgage.

Also, many people thinking about buying or refinancing may be spurred to action because they don’t want to miss the boat — they know the Federal Reserve is working hard to push rates up, and is sure to succeed sooner or later.

Given today’s conditions, which mortgage types look good, and which don’t?

Clearly, the traditional fixed-rate mortgage is king. Rates on 30-year loans are averaging about 5.7 percent, or a tad less, depending on which survey you use. By historical standards, that’s very low.

With a fixed loan, you know your rate will never go up. This is a great time to lock in a low rate for the long term.

Fixed loans with 15-year terms now charge about 5.3 percent. That’s a tad cheaper than the 30-year loan, offering a bit of savings on interest charges. Just remember that your monthly payments on the 15-year loan would be higher than on a 30-year loan for the same amount, because you’d pay more principal each month.

A 15-year loan can save you a lot over the long term, because you pay interest for just 15 years instead of 30. But you can enjoy similar savings by getting a 30-year loan and making extra principal payments when you can.

To weigh these and other options, try the calculators offered by the rate-tracking firm HSH Associates at www.hsh.com.

Adjustable options

Adjustable-rate mortgages are not very attractive these days, though lots of people are getting them in order to qualify for bigger loans. That’s possible because initial rates — and therefore monthly payments — are lower than those on fixed loans.

Starting, or “teaser,” rates on ARMs average about 4.3 percent.

While that’s less than the fixed loan charges, it’s typically good for only the first 12 months. Then the rate will adjust once a year, based on rates at the time.

Most adjustables have rules than allow annual changes of as much as 2 percentage points up or down, and as much as 6 points over the life of the loan.

That means an adjustable obtained today could go to 6.3 percent in 12 months, and 10.3 percent in future years. You probably wouldn’t save enough during the first 12 months to offset the higher payments you might have to make in the future.

Adjustments on these loans are typically figured by adding 2.75 percentage points to some index, such as the rate on the one-year U.S. Treasury bill. The Fed has a lot of influence over short-term rates like these. So if the Fed raises the funds rate to 3.5 percent or 4 percent this year, as many experts expect, the one-year U.S. Treasury bill could go to something like 4 percent or 4.5 percent.

This should be a wake-up call for anyone who already has an adjustable loan. If that Treasury bill goes to 4 percent during the next year, your ARM could go to 6.75 percent. You could wait to see what happens, then refinance to a fixed-rate loan. But by then fixed loans could be charging 7.5 percent or 8 percent, and you’d be sorry you missed the 5.7 percent offered today.

What about hybrid loans?

Another choice: hybrids

These typically offer a fixed rate for an initial period, then make annual adjustments for the remainder of the term. They’re best for people who think they won’t need the loan for much longer than the initial, fixed-rate term.

Today, the 3/1 hybrid, with a fixed term for three years followed by annual adjustments, averages a starting rate of about 4.8 percent. The 5/1 is about 5 percent, the 7/1 is 5.3 percent and the 10/1 is 5.5 percent.

The 5/1 looks good. The rate offers some significant savings during the first five years. Even if rates jumped afterward, you’d probably still realize savings if you kept the loan for only six or seven years.

I wouldn’t go with a hybrid if I planned to live in a house for 20 or 30 years. But most people don’t stay in their homes that long.