I can't believe nobody is talking about 50 year Mortgages

[james.hendrickson]

I can't believe nobody on the forums here is talking about the Trump Administration's push for 50 year mortgages. They're a terrible idea if you want to financially free - as they're a virtual guarantee of lifetime debt.

I'm not the only one saying this - Rep. Tomas Massie is saying it also:

[disneysteve]

The WH is already backpedaling and the guy who mentioned it to Trump will probably get fired, even though the President didn't need to immediately post about it 10 minutes after that conversation.

It's an incredibly stupid idea that would worsen the housing market, raise prices, and worsen personal debt.

It's not going to happen.

[james.hendrickson]

I saw it, and was like "wow" thats a great idea if you want to keep people in lifetime mortgage debt.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

it's makes it affordable didn't you hear?

[james.hendrickson]

it's makes it affordable didn't you hear?

I get your point LivingAlmostLarge, and I'm just blown away by how expensive those products would be.

[myrdale]

This isn't a new idea. And believe it or not, I'm not opposed to it if you handle the situation correctly.

Of the half dozen mortgage options which were offered to me were the 15 year and 30 year fixed. I went with the 30 year. When the mortgage was payed down about 50%, I refinanced from 6.5% to 4.0%. Again I went with a 30 year fixed. When I told other people about it the response was "OMG you're starting all over again!!" And this is absolutely not the case. The total time I had a mortgage was 9 years.

My advice then is the same as now. Figure out what you can afford on a 15 year mortgage, then get the longest term available and double (or in some cases pentuple) up on the payments. It gives you more breathing room for if an emergency arises you'll have a lower payment while still giving you the option to front end load up the mortgage payments with as much extra principle as you can afford each month. And while I'd much rather have the mortgage done away with, if you do drop back to the regular payment each month after you've paid it down some 70% or you're paying so little interest at that point.

Now with all that said if your buying a house based on the maximum you can afford for a 50 year note, then yeah that is dumb.

[disneysteve]

This isn't a new idea. And believe it or not, I'm not opposed to it if you handle the situation correctly.

Of the half dozen mortgage options which were offered to me were the 15 year and 30 year fixed. I went with the 30 year. When the mortgage was payed down about 50%, I refinanced from 6.5% to 4.0%. Again I went with a 30 year fixed. When I told other people about it the response was "OMG you're starting all over again!!" And this is absolutely not the case. The total time I had a mortgage was 9 years.

My advice then is the same as now. Figure out what you can afford on a 15 year mortgage, then get the longest term available and double (or in some cases pentuple) up on the payments. It gives you more breathing room for if an emergency arises you'll have a lower payment while still giving you the option to front end load up the mortgage payments with as much extra principle as you can afford each month. And while I'd much rather have the mortgage done away with, if you do drop back to the regular payment each month after you've paid it down some 70% or you're paying so little interest at that point.

Now with all that said if your buying a house based on the maximum you can afford for a 50 year note, then yeah that is dumb.

You (and I) are not the norm. What you did was well thought out and well executed. That's not how 95% of the population operates.

What would realistically happen if 50-year loans became a thing? Folks would say, "Gee, we can afford $1,500/month. With a 30-year loan that gets us a $500,000 house but if we do one of those new 50-year loans then we can 'afford' a $900,000 house."

And we already have proof of how things would play out because we see it in the car market where instead of 3 or 4-year loans, 6 and 7-year and even 8-year car loans are increasingly common. People aren't using them to buy cheaper cars with lower payments. They're using them to buy more expensive cars with the same monthly payment.

[myrdale]

You (and I) are not the norm.....
.....They're using them to buy more expensive cars with the same monthly payment.

That unfortunately is the potential side effects of a free market and ignorant consumer base.

Saying we won't allow 50 year mortgages to keep people from making bad decisions is like saying we won't allow another fast food joint to be built in town to keep people from getting fat.

[james.hendrickson]

lololol

[SavingBucks]

About 40 years ago a co-worker and his wife moved into their first house with a 40 year mortgage. He could not qualify for anything less. I literally could not believe that at that time. But both were spenders and did not care about tomorrow. Long story short, they sold that house and moved into another with a new 40 year mortgage about 8 years later. 10 years after that the house went into foreclosure and was lost (no payments were made for 2-3 years prior). There was an offer from a realtor that would have given them $15K cash but they kept insisting that the house would not be lost. He is still renting today.

[james.hendrickson]

So now the White House is backtracking:

White House officials unhappy about 50-year mortgage idea released by top housing official, sources say

By Jennifer Jacobs

Updated on: November 11, 2025 / 2:00 PM EST / CBS News A proposal for a 50-year mortgage wasn't fully vetted by top Trump administration officials and wasn't ready to be made public, sources told CBS News.

Over the weekend, top federal housing official Bill Pulte floated the idea with President Trump, who then approved a Truth Social post.

Some Trump officials this week vented their frustration with Pulte over the move. One source said Mr. Trump was lukewarm about the suggestion but announced it "to get Pulte to shut up about it."

Another source disputed the characterization of the president as tepid about the mortgage proposal, however, and said 40-year and 50-year mortgages had been discussed by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, National Economic Council director Kevin Hassett and others in the administration.

Three sources said the Trump administration has been working on other ideas to promote affordability for Americans, including strategies to alleviate the housing crunch.

The internal discussions on the longer-term loans were casual, and no final decisions had been made, the sources said.

The 50-year mortgage idea came about when Pulte spoke to the president at Mar-a-Lago over the weekend, two of the sources said. Politico reported earlier that White House officials were upset with Pulte, the head of the independent Federal Housing Finance Agency. The FHFA regulates Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the 11 Federal Home Loan Banks, which are tasked with providing liquidity to member institutions for home financing and community investment.

After Pulte presented the suggestion, a sign was posted to Mr. Trump's Truth account with a banner at the top reading "Great American Presidents" over the portraits of two presidents side by side, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Trump himself. The words "30-year mortgage" appear over Roosevelt, while "50-year mortgage" appears over Trump.

Mr. Trump approved the Truth Social post, and it went up at 1:10 p.m. Saturday. About half an hour later, Pulte shared Mr. Trump's post on X and added that "we are indeed working on The 50 year Mortgage — a complete game changer." He also called it a "potential weapon in a WIDE arsenal of solutions that we are developing right now."

No other details about the proposal have been released.

Pulte didn't immediately comment.

White House spokesman Davis Ingle said the president is committed to making home ownership easier by eliminating unnecessary red tape, increasing supply, and lowering costs. "The White House and the entire Trump administration are appreciative of Mr. Pulte's efforts, and everyone is working together to implement the President's policies," Ingle said.

The president defended the 50-year mortgage idea in an interview Monday night with Fox News' "The Ingraham Angle."

"All it means is you pay less per month.You pay it over a longer period of time. It's not like a big factor," Mr. Trump said. "It might help a little bit."

Analysts are still examining whether a 50-year mortgage would make homes more affordable for Americans. Some point out that while borrowers might pay a little less in monthly principal and interest – because the loan's duration is 20 years longer – the total cost for them would be much higher.

"The total interest paid over the life of the loan would be staggering, since even with a low rate, you're looking at 50 years' worth of interest," NerdWallet lending expert Kate Wood told CBS News earlier this week in an email.

At this point, typical homeowners spend 39% of their income on housing, well above the 30% affordability threshold recommended by financial experts, according to Redfin. Mortgage rates have eased this year but are still above 6%, about twice the pandemic-era lows. Home prices averaged $410,800 in the second quarter, about 25% higher than in early 2020, according to Federal Reserve data. Mary Cunningham contributed to this report.

Source: link.

[bjl584]

Unlikely it will happen, but then again, I never thought I'd see 10 year auto loans.

Most people don't stay in their houses that long anyway.
If you play it smart, you can refi at some point or move.

[ua_guy]

Remember when home builders didn't run enterprises worth billions, and find their way into the White House to influence home affordability?

I do.

[myrdale]

If we are going to demonize 50 year mortgages, we'd need to demonize all mortgages. Who decides what is reasonable? 50 year? 30 year? 15 year? Leave it up to the markets to decide.

[disneysteve]

If we are going to demonize 50 year mortgages, we'd need to demonize all mortgages. Who decides what is reasonable? 50 year? 30 year? 15 year? Leave it up to the markets to decide.

That's an interesting point. 30 year loans first became a thing in 1948 but didn't really become the norm until the 1960s. Now 60 years later, is it time for a longer option? Home prices relative to incomes are much more out of whack than they were back then, which is a much larger societal problem. This doesn't do anything to address that other than give people a longer rope to hang themselves.