The Fifty-Year Mortgage Mirage

The proposal for government-backed fifty-year mortgages arrives with earnest purpose and impeccable timing. Few doubt the need for relief: housing affordability has reached crisis levels . Americans buying homes today typically devote nearly 40 percent of their income to mortgage payments, and the average first-time buyer is 40 years old, an age that once marked the midpoint of a homeowner’s journey, not its hesitant beginning.

Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte has called the idea a “complete game changer,” and one understands the hope behind the phrase. Extending a $400,000 loan from 30 to 50 years at five percent interest trims monthly payments by roughly $330 —a fifteen percent reduction that could turn a mortgage rejection into an

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