Comments on: BCR, Banco Nacional introduce 40-year mortgages

By: Derryl Hermanutz

Derryl Hermanutz — Fri, 22 Aug 2014 00:30:00 +0000

If home ownership is simply a financial calculation, then if monthly interest payments on your mortgage are higher than monthly rent for a similar house, you’re better off renting. Every mortgage principal payment gets you a little closer to owning the house. Rent payments and interest payments are a dead loss, from the perspective of ever owning the house. If home ownership is a kind of forced savings, where every month you pay a little bit of loan principal and in the end you own a house (no more monthly rent or interest payments), then even if interest in the early years of the mortgage are higher than rent, buying still makes sense. Everybody needs a place to live so until you own your home you’re going to be a slave to monthly rent payments or monthly interest payments. And for most people home ownership is not a purely financial calculation. It is “worth” something to own your own home; just like it is worth something to drive a decent car when a cheap beater will do the same job and cost you less.

By: disgusted

disgusted — Thu, 21 Aug 2014 20:58:00 +0000

Slaves to a mortgage payment and 40 yrs. IF you qualify… Life sentence at high interest rates.

By: roberto

roberto — Thu, 21 Aug 2014 20:21:00 +0000

Whales gobbling up minnows.

By: Ken Morris

Ken Morris — Thu, 21 Aug 2014 20:20:00 +0000

Instead of the bankers fishing for business, this strikes me as an instance in which bankers are crafting policies intended to show their regulators that they have socially responsible lending programs–without however actually lending much money. I bet once you look at the fine print of these loans, next to nobody can qualify for them. However, I’d like to be wrong, just doubt that I am.

By: Yeims

Yeims — Thu, 21 Aug 2014 15:51:00 +0000

Hmmm, looks like the bankers are going fishing . . . .