50-year mortgages a 'great idea'? Maybe, Pastor Mark Driscoll says

Then it would depend on the age of the people making the loan on whether or not they qualify for a fifth year mortgage.

Either way, it's the banks that make the decision.

From the article linked in the OP....

Chase acknowledged that while 50 years does extend the life and amount of interest paid on the loan, borrowers can choose to pay it off before the loan ends. “You can pay it off very quickly. You can refinance it down the road,” he said. “I think when interest rates are high, something like this makes a lot of sense to me.”

He said that while borrowers “do have to be wise,” they can always choose to take their savings to pay down their principal more quickly. “If you're a smart steward and you're a godly man and you do something like a 50-year mortgage and you take the extra money and you invest it or pay down your house faster, you're going to be in a great position in 10, 15, 20 years,” he said.

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That is true. You can do the same thing today with your vehicle.
But, I run into more people that are upside down (owe more on the loan than the vehicle is worth) than I do people who have a paid off vehicle.

I can't help but wonder if the same will happen here. Where people could pay it off early, but instead get trapped into very long term debt.

Michie said:

Podcast weighs pros, cons of reported Trump administration plan

Is a half-century investment in owning your home worth it?

Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte announced this week that the Trump administration is working on a novel approach to the home affordability crisis: a 50-year mortgage.

The still-unofficial proposal builds off of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s introduction of the 30-year mortgage under the New Deal and could offer more homebuyers the opportunity to qualify for financing.

Still, critics point out that given the average U.S. life expectancy of 78.4 years, the average 32-year-old homebuyer is more likely to leave the mortgage for their children to pay off than to leave them a home free and clear.

Pastor Mark Driscoll, senior pastor of Trinity Church in Scottsdale, Arizona, took on the topic in a Nov. 11 episode of his podcast titled “Trump 50-Year Mortgage is a GREAT Idea,” in which Driscoll and Landon Chase, real estate agent and CEO of Driscoll’s Real Faith Ministries, talked about the merits of such a proposal.

Continued below.

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I think it is a terrible idea both biblically and practically. The borrower is slave to the lender. So a 50 year mortgage institutionalizes this even further. Longer duration mortgages command HIGHER interest rates. A 15 year mortgage is cheaper than a 30 years by a half percent. By extending the mortgage to 50 years, it will qualify more buyers at current prices. However, sellers will raise prices. so they will likely pay more for the house.

Currently a 30 year mortgage is running around 6.3 percent. So after the fees and the likely rise in the 50 year spread, you would need 7% on your investment to break even . That is possible to beat over 50 years but it would take discipline and it is not guaranteed.

I think too that 50 year mortgages are going to require even more government backing. Why? because banks don't trust the federal government to hold inflation and interest rates down. that is why even now many mortgages are run through Fannie Mae, USDA, and HUD. So more government intervention in the market is a bad idea as well.

Though I do not always agree with Dave Ramsey a Christian financial profession, (not a Pastor with a degree in communications) I checked his sentiments and they mirror mine though he goes into even more detail.