Fun Facts About Mortgages

If you’re looking to get on the property ladder for the first time, there’s a lot to know about mortgages. Buying a property nowadays is decidedly more complex than it was two decades ago, not to mention the fact that it is also much more expensive as well. However, it’s not all doom and gloom, as buying your first property will likely be one of the best investments that you could ever wish for. Today we’re not going to talk to you about numbers, we’re instead going to take a more light-hearted look at mortgages and will be sharing some interesting and fun facts about mortgages that you may not have been aware of.

It is possible to purchase a house without a deposit

Decades ago, buying a property without a deposit/down payment was surprisingly easy. These days however, it’s the deposit that most people struggle with. Generally, it’s around 10%, which is a lot of money to save up. Despite this however, it is still possible to purchase a house without a deposit, although it is very rare.

First time buyers are quite rare

Given the state of the economy and the market, this probably won’t come as that much of a surprise, but either way, here it is. Nowadays there are far fewer first time buyers than in the past. Typically, you’ll find that first time buyers make up roughly 40% of the housing market. Lately however, that number has dropped. It might not sound like much, but by 2013, first time buyers made up just 38%. This 2% drop may not sound like much, but in the grand scheme of things it’s quite significant. It’s estimated that that number could now actually be even lower still.

Mortgage debt is quite high

For the purpose of transparency, we need to tell you that by ‘quite high’ what we actually-mean is ‘astronomically high’. At the end of the final financial quarter of 2013, in the US alone, mortgage debts totalled $13 Trillion.

The word ‘mortgage’ is quite solemn

The word mortgage is derived from the French word ‘Morgage’ which was sometimes spelled ‘Mort Gaige’. This literally translated to ‘dead pledge’ in French. The meaning behind this was that, once you pay the mortgage off or fail to make payments, the mortgage dies.

Most people don’t understand mortgages

Mortgages are incredibly complex, and buying a property is certainly not simple or easy. According to market research however, around 33% of people admittedly do not understand the basic fundamentals of mortgages. There are of course, mortgage advisors and other property and lending experts you can talk to who can help, and they’re certainly well worth speaking to, especially if you’re looking to get on the property ladder for the first time.