Gee it seems like only yesterday that we were talking about the newest
innovation in mortgages - the 40
year loan. Actually it wasn't exactly yesterday, it was January, 2005
and the 40 year loan term wasn't exactly new, it had been around since the
record high interest rates in the 1980s without ever achieving any real
acceptance. But last year Fannie Mae announced a pilot program to
test-market a 40 year product throughout the country. Today approximately 5
percent of new mortgages in the country are written for a 40 year term.
Now the newest wrinkle is, are you ready for this - the 50 year
mortgage? This isn't exactly a reflection of the fact that we are
living longer but rather a reaction to skyrocketing housing prices and the
slow upward creep of interest rates.
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