FRED
10-19-07, 02:36 PM
http://www.itulip.com/images/deadowner.jpgGiving away gold coins in these contests is getting expensive. No big deal in the old days when gold was trading at $270. But with the world's central banks, led by the Fed, playing Race to the Bottom with the world's major currencies, these English Sovereigns ain't cheap anymore. They were $80 when we started, now $180.
With the housing market crashing on schedule and in line with our Jan. 2005 forecast (http://itulip.com/forums/showthread.php?p=15495#post15495), it's time to challenge the iTulip crew–in our opinion the smartest finance and economics community on the whole Web–to tell us: Which bank or lender will be the first to offer a 100 Year Mortgage?
The 50 Year Mortgage debuted April 2006. As Holden Lewis at Bankrate.com (http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/mortgages/20060427a1.asp) reported then:
Half of first-time home buyers are 32 or older, according to the National Association of Realtors. If those buyers get 50-year mortgages and never refinance or make extra payments, they won't pay off their loans until they're well into their 80s. Would they be crazy to get loans that amortize or pay off the balance over 50 years instead of the standard 30 years? Not at all, Diaz says.
"Getting a 50-year loan is a perfectly rational way to avoid an interest-only or payment-option adjustable-rate mortgage," he says.http://www.itulip.com/images/gold_sovereign.gifPerfectly rational. Let's take "rational" to the extreme. If you have to choose between defaulting on your mortgage and giving up your home or extending your mortgage out to 1200 affordable monthly payments, which are going to do? Why the perfectly rational thing, of course!
As the dollar sinks and long term interest rates rise to price in inflation and, dare we say, default risk, homes become even less affordable on a monthly basis as mortgage rates rise.
Remember, the Monthly Payment Consumer (http://www.itulip.com/glossary.htm#M) debt serf couldn't care less about the total price of anything, only the monthly cost.
When long term interest rates, such as on 10 year treasury bonds, rise to 10%, the monthly payment on a 30 year fixed rate mortgage will be out of reach for Joe Home "Owner" when he tries to switch out of a balooning adjustable rate mortgage and into a nice, stable fixed rate mortgage. It won't help him one bit if the price of his home falls 30% from the time he bought the home with a 3.4% teaser rate with an ARM–he'll still be stuck refinancing the old, underwater mortgage.
The Japanese style 100 Year Mortgage is just the thing to bring the monthly payment on "his" home into range, and keep him paying until he's rotting in his grave.
Forget a lifetime of debt. Soon millions will enjoy an afterlife of debt. Call it the Afterlife Mortgage.
Each registered iTulip member gets to post the name of one bank or lender they believe is most likely to be first to offer the 100 Year Mortgage. If the bank you choose gets acquired, then your guess transfers to the acquiring bank or Resolution Trust Taxpayer Bail-Out Company or whatever. In case of a tie, the first poster to post the winning name wins. This thread closes to posts in one week. Good luck!
(Sorry, iTulip employees, contractors, writers, sponsors, and affiliates are not eligible to play.)
With the housing market crashing on schedule and in line with our Jan. 2005 forecast (http://itulip.com/forums/showthread.php?p=15495#post15495), it's time to challenge the iTulip crew–in our opinion the smartest finance and economics community on the whole Web–to tell us: Which bank or lender will be the first to offer a 100 Year Mortgage?
The 50 Year Mortgage debuted April 2006. As Holden Lewis at Bankrate.com (http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/mortgages/20060427a1.asp) reported then:
Half of first-time home buyers are 32 or older, according to the National Association of Realtors. If those buyers get 50-year mortgages and never refinance or make extra payments, they won't pay off their loans until they're well into their 80s. Would they be crazy to get loans that amortize or pay off the balance over 50 years instead of the standard 30 years? Not at all, Diaz says.
"Getting a 50-year loan is a perfectly rational way to avoid an interest-only or payment-option adjustable-rate mortgage," he says.http://www.itulip.com/images/gold_sovereign.gifPerfectly rational. Let's take "rational" to the extreme. If you have to choose between defaulting on your mortgage and giving up your home or extending your mortgage out to 1200 affordable monthly payments, which are going to do? Why the perfectly rational thing, of course!
As the dollar sinks and long term interest rates rise to price in inflation and, dare we say, default risk, homes become even less affordable on a monthly basis as mortgage rates rise.
Remember, the Monthly Payment Consumer (http://www.itulip.com/glossary.htm#M) debt serf couldn't care less about the total price of anything, only the monthly cost.
When long term interest rates, such as on 10 year treasury bonds, rise to 10%, the monthly payment on a 30 year fixed rate mortgage will be out of reach for Joe Home "Owner" when he tries to switch out of a balooning adjustable rate mortgage and into a nice, stable fixed rate mortgage. It won't help him one bit if the price of his home falls 30% from the time he bought the home with a 3.4% teaser rate with an ARM–he'll still be stuck refinancing the old, underwater mortgage.
The Japanese style 100 Year Mortgage is just the thing to bring the monthly payment on "his" home into range, and keep him paying until he's rotting in his grave.
Forget a lifetime of debt. Soon millions will enjoy an afterlife of debt. Call it the Afterlife Mortgage.
Each registered iTulip member gets to post the name of one bank or lender they believe is most likely to be first to offer the 100 Year Mortgage. If the bank you choose gets acquired, then your guess transfers to the acquiring bank or Resolution Trust Taxpayer Bail-Out Company or whatever. In case of a tie, the first poster to post the winning name wins. This thread closes to posts in one week. Good luck!
(Sorry, iTulip employees, contractors, writers, sponsors, and affiliates are not eligible to play.)