hrothgar Posted August 21, 2009 Report Share Posted August 21, 2009 After 43 glorious, debt free years I just had an offer accepted on a condo 30 year fixed rate mortgageMakes me feel oldVERY VERY old Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cascade Posted August 21, 2009 Report Share Posted August 21, 2009 I bet the rate is not really fixed for 30 years. Good luck and congratulations on your purchase. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kenberg Posted August 21, 2009 Report Share Posted August 21, 2009 Old? I tell you about old!! Congratulations. I recall you were thinking on this a while back. I'll uncork some wine in celebration. Enjoy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hrothgar Posted August 21, 2009 Author Report Share Posted August 21, 2009 I bet the rate is not really fixed for 30 years. Good luck and congratulations on your purchase. Actually, it is... 30 year fixed at 4.375%NICE little promotion Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kenrexford Posted August 22, 2009 Report Share Posted August 22, 2009 I bet the rate is not really fixed for 30 years. Good luck and congratulations on your purchase. Actually, it is... 30 year fixed at 4.375%NICE little promotion What important vote did YOU cast? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jillybean Posted August 22, 2009 Report Share Posted August 22, 2009 Congratulations Richard, is the complex rat friendly? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cascade Posted August 22, 2009 Report Share Posted August 22, 2009 I bet the rate is not really fixed for 30 years. Good luck and congratulations on your purchase. Actually, it is... 30 year fixed at 4.375%NICE little promotion wow that is some long term plan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Posted August 22, 2009 Report Share Posted August 22, 2009 Good for you. Is the same complex you were asking about a few months ago? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Winstonm Posted August 22, 2009 Report Share Posted August 22, 2009 If it is a non-recourse loan you're not really in debt. :o However, you still are *****ing old. :P Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gerben42 Posted August 22, 2009 Report Share Posted August 22, 2009 Sensible choice to not accept a variable-rate mortgage! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gerardo Posted August 22, 2009 Report Share Posted August 22, 2009 Congrats on ownership! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hrothgar Posted August 22, 2009 Author Report Share Posted August 22, 2009 I bet the rate is not really fixed for 30 years. Good luck and congratulations on your purchase. Actually, it is... 30 year fixed at 4.375%NICE little promotion What important vote did YOU cast? The complex has 24 units I purchased the 12th unit which brings the complex up to 50% occupancy and causes the condo association to incorporate. The developers were very anxious to have an operational condo association. (This makes it much easier to sell the remaining units at a high price) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hrothgar Posted August 22, 2009 Author Report Share Posted August 22, 2009 Good for you. Is the same complex you were asking about a few months ago? Yeap I spend a bunch of time trying to find something I liked better.I ended up going back to this one. This is more expensive than most of the stuff out there, however, I loved the location and the design. Equally significant, just about the only high end condos that are moving in / around Natick are moving in this one property. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hrothgar Posted August 22, 2009 Author Report Share Posted August 22, 2009 I bet the rate is not really fixed for 30 years. Good luck and congratulations on your purchase. Actually, it is... 30 year fixed at 4.375%NICE little promotion wow that is some long term plan. 30 years mortgages seem to be fairly common here in the US. One of the main reasons that I decided to purchase was my desire to build a better inflation hedge into my portfolio. Honking big fixed rate mortgage is one hell of an inflation hedge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gerben42 Posted August 22, 2009 Report Share Posted August 22, 2009 30 years mortgages seem to be fairly common here in the US. I think the best mortgages are either rather short (15 years) or rather long (30 years). The short ones are based on "I want to be out of debt soon, so I can live without worries". The long ones are based on "I want to pay as little as possible each month because my interest rate is so low, I'd rather keep the loan a bit longer." In the current market, I think the rates are so low that you don't really want to pay the loan back very soon and rather invest the extra money (that you would have put in paying back the loan) with a profit that is higher than the interest rate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kenrexford Posted August 22, 2009 Report Share Posted August 22, 2009 30 years mortgages seem to be fairly common here in the US. I think the best mortgages are either rather short (15 years) or rather long (30 years). The short ones are based on "I want to be out of debt soon, so I can live without worries". The long ones are based on "I want to pay as little as possible each month because my interest rate is so low, I'd rather keep the loan a bit longer." In the current market, I think the rates are so low that you don't really want to pay the loan back very soon and rather invest the extra money (that you would have put in paying back the loan) with a profit that is higher than the interest rate. I tried to negotiate a 100-year mortgage, but they wouldn't have it. Actually, these days, we have been talking more and more abou 10-year loans in the U.S., because... (end of joke, depending on politics, follows) ...of the Obama Health Care Plan. ...of all of the protesters and the state of our health care system. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Posted August 22, 2009 Report Share Posted August 22, 2009 Frankly what Richard did shows the system isn't broken. You buy a house to own and to occupy. You don't buy a house to escrow, and try to flip to the next sucker. You don't buy a house to scam a bank claiming that you are living in it, and have twelve other owner-occupied loans simultaneously. Here's to a(n) (eventual) recovery. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cascade Posted August 22, 2009 Report Share Posted August 22, 2009 I bet the rate is not really fixed for 30 years. Good luck and congratulations on your purchase. Actually, it is... 30 year fixed at 4.375%NICE little promotion wow that is some long term plan. 30 years mortgages seem to be fairly common here in the US. One of the main reasons that I decided to purchase was my desire to build a better inflation hedge into my portfolio. Honking big fixed rate mortgage is one hell of an inflation hedge. I have never had one but here I think a fixed interest home loan means it will be fixed for the next 2 years (or whatever short term). That is you might takeout a mortgage for 25 or 30 years but the rate is commonly fixed every couple of years or so. I am not sure if you can fix for ten years or more. I don't recall ever hearing of that. Don't get me wrong we have our mortgage but ours is basically just like an overdraft on our chequing account and the rate is floating - I am not sure how regularly it gets revised. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al_U_Card Posted August 22, 2009 Report Share Posted August 22, 2009 Frankly what Richard did shows the system isn't broken. You buy a house to own and to occupy. You don't buy a house to escrow, and try to flip to the next sucker. You don't buy a house to scam a bank claiming that you are living in it, and have twelve other owner-occupied loans simultaneously. Here's to a(n) (eventual) recovery. And neither is the yoke. You just need a good job for 30 years. And a solvent bank for 30 years. And no natural disasters for 30 years. And no unnatural (government imposed) disasters for 30 years. Did I mention good health for 30 years? Piece of (low cholesterol) cake. ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
helene_t Posted August 22, 2009 Report Share Posted August 22, 2009 Yeah, fixing for decades is normal in Denmark, too. Here in UK it is usually only fixed for a few years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hrothgar Posted August 22, 2009 Author Report Share Posted August 22, 2009 Frankly what Richard did shows the system isn't broken. You buy a house to own and to occupy. You don't buy a house to escrow, and try to flip to the next sucker. You don't buy a house to scam a bank claiming that you are living in it, and have twelve other owner-occupied loans simultaneously. Here's to a(n) (eventual) recovery. And neither is the yoke. You just need a good job for 30 years. And a solvent bank for 30 years. And no natural disasters for 30 years. And no unnatural (government imposed) disasters for 30 years. Did I mention good health for 30 years? Piece of (low cholesterol) cake. ;) Al, you don't know jack ***** about me, my finances, or - from what I can tell - anything else. Please rest assured that: 1. The reason that I got a 30 year fixed mortgage was as an inflation hedge. If I couldn't pay the mortgage off (considerably) faster than this, I wouldn't be buying the apartment. 2. Coupled with this, the 30 year fixed mortgage is actually insurance in case I were to lose my job. I could have gotten even better financing with a 15 year fixed mortgage. They payments would be hefty, but I could handle them without too much trouble. The problem is that IF I were to lose my job, the size of the mortgage payments would burn through my reserve funds MUCH more quickly. It makes MUCH more sense to get a 30 year fixed but to pay it off using a 15 year schedule. You pay a bit more in interest, but its MUCH more secure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kenberg Posted August 22, 2009 Report Share Posted August 22, 2009 On every mortgage I have ever had (I have had five of them) the rate was fixed in the sense of not changing ever. On one of them I renegotiated the interest rate downward but that required an active intervention on my part. As long as I took no action, the rate remained the same. A story I just heard today: A couple had a fixed rate mortgage, renegotiated to a lower rate, initialed various sheets of paper that were put in from of them, one of the papers made it an ARM. She tells me that neither she nor her husband realized this and had no intention of getting such a change. When the rates went up after a couple of years they went elsewhere and got a new fixed rate mortgage. I mention this as a buyer beware story. When you are buying, you get quite a large number of pieces of paper shoved in front of you for your signature. It's best to read them carefully. I agree with Gerben's general view that the length of a mortgage is at least partly a matter of personality. I am a "get the damned thing paid off and forget it" person. A tax preparer explained I should buy a vacation home with a big mortgage. I don't want a vacation home and I don't want a big mortgage. Besides, the government needs my tax dollars. ;) Whatever the pluses and minuses of mortgages are, I like not owing any money to anyone. Definitely this has more to do with my personality than with any careful financial analysis. Fortunately my wife sees this matter exactly the same way. But this is all down the road a ways for the op. Enjoy your new digs, worry about the merits and demerits of paying off the mortgage some time in the future. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Posted August 22, 2009 Report Share Posted August 22, 2009 You just need a good job for 30 years. No. You need the ability to pay, which is no different than renting. And a solvent bank for 30 years. Why? And no natural disasters for 30 years. This is what insurance is for. And no unnatural (government imposed) disasters for 30 years. Ownership of a home is not dependent on the stability of the government, although I would argue that if my property was nationalized, that I doubt I have an obligation to pay my mortgage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al_U_Card Posted August 22, 2009 Report Share Posted August 22, 2009 Despite Richard's disdain, the important thing is to inform yourself and choose an option that suits your current situation best. Subject to all the above-mentioned provisos, which are just some of the things that I have seen in my 30 odd years of home "ownership" through renting, buying, building and sharing. Did I mention divorce? Another fun situation to navigate through. As Ken mentioned, anyone can sign anything, but reading and understanding the contract is key. Sometimes you can even come out on top. Takes some luck, but it does happen. p.s. They stopped having long-term, fixed rate mortgages here in Canada a few years before I purchased my first home. Of course, those at 6 1/2% or 10 3/4% or more were always "renegotiable" for a penalty. It's all just part of the game. p.p.s. You did say you were purchasing a condo, Richard? :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skjaeran Posted August 23, 2009 Report Share Posted August 23, 2009 Here in Norway fixing for 3 or 5 years is normal, though most people don't fix interest rates at all. I fixed the rate for five year on the loan on my apartment half a year ago. This far it's been a not-so-good idea. But over five years I'd never lose much, if anything on my decision, I believe. Anyway, that's moot now, since I'm moving together with my girlfriend to a bigger place in mid-November. And I'm putting my apartment on sale as soon as I return from Sao Paulo. Fixing for 30 years at that rate seems a very good decision IMO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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