CHARLESTON — Housing affordability remains so strained the Trump administration is working on a plan to introduce a 50-year mortgage option for homebuyers.

Stretching loans over an additional two decades from the standard 30-year term would help lower monthly payments for those who can’t meet the mortgages for homes that have risen nearly 50 percent in cost in the last five years, combined with 6-plus percent interest rates.

But financial experts say the break doesn’t come without cost.

A 50-year loan would generate more interest than a 30- or 15-year mortgage, with one example showing a $400,000 loan at 6 percent interest could cost a buyer an additional $400,000 more in interest alone.

Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte, whose grandfather founded the national homebuil

See Full Page