Finally! A story writer adds accurate context:
Assumable mortgages were popular in the 1980s“For the last 40 years, rates have been falling, so nobody cared about assumability,” said Tod Tozer, former president and CEO of Ginnie Mae. “So we’re basically back to the future — we’re back to 40 years ago when 30-year mortgages were close to 13%, 14% back in 1981. And they’ve been falling ever since.”
Source: Want a 3% mortgage? An ‘assumable mortgage’ could be the answer. Here’s how. – MarketWatch
Unfortunately, only about 1/4th of existing loans are assumable.
Our first house was a “fixer upper”, having been a trashed rental property owned by 8 out of state investors, then abandoned when they could no longer rent it out. On the market for 8 months, we bought it by assuming an 11.2% combined mortgage rate, with a large balloon payment due in 5 years. It took us 3 years of sweat equity to clean, fix and remodel the property up to contemporary standards. This was not likely the type of home that most new home buyers are looking to buy.
Many Gen Z social media videos about the current economy suggest it is now the end of the world. In 1982, the average unemployment rate was about 7.2% and inflation was running near 10%. Year over year home price increases had been 15%, the largest in about 50 years. And mortgage rates would climb to over 16%.
