A 50-year mortgage would mean you get 20 more years to pay off the house. It also means you’d have 20 more years of paying interest, and also earning less equity.

Mortgage rates have ticked down, but not enough.

“My mortgage loan guy said the VA would have denied us getting the amount of the loan that we wanted without my wife's income in part as well,” said Eric Reineman. Two weeks later, they tied the knot.

It’s often in the interest of lenders themselves to work with borrowers and provide options for repaying the loans.

Most are sold into the secondary market, which increases liquidity and makes it easier to get a mortgage at a lower interest rate.

The application rate for any kind of credit dropped to just over 41% this year from nearly 45% in 2022, according to a Fed survey.

Mortgage applications rose last week, thanks in part to a dip in mortgage rates, according to a new report. But credit availability has been falling.

Econ Extra Credit newsletter #129

The land, labor, supplies, and permits add up.

Some of the initiative is philanthropic, but most of it is lending with an expected return for the bank.