The interest rate on a second mortgage was5 7/8 % last month. This month the interest rate is 7 3/2 %. How many percentage points has the interest rate increased?
Are you sure you mean 7 3/2% ? No lender would write an intereest rate that way.
Perhaps you typed a numerator or denominator wrong. Do you mean 7 1/2%, or 7 3/8 %, for example?
In any case, subtract the "last month" interest rate from the current interest rate to get the answer. This can be done by either decimal conversion or by finding a common denominator for the interest rates.
I apologize for the confusion. It seems that the expression "7 3/2%" is not a conventional way to represent an interest rate. Let's assume that you meant 7 1/2% instead.
To find the increase in percentage points, we need to subtract the interest rate from last month from the interest rate this month.
Last month's interest rate: 5 7/8% (or 5.875% as a decimal)
This month's interest rate: 7 1/2% (or 7.5% as a decimal)
To subtract these percentages, we can either convert them both to decimals or find a common denominator and convert them to fractions with that denominator. Let's choose the decimal approach:
7.5% - 5.875% = 0.075 - 0.05875 = 0.01625
Therefore, the interest rate has increased by 0.01625 (or 1.625%) percentage points.