Be tipped off to the fact that “mort,” meaning “death,” in French, is part of the word “mortgage.” It’s like the hired killer who just happens to let slip that he’s going to come back and kill you. Mortgage means death pledge.
The reputation of the home mortgage was burnished to a high gloss over much of the 20th century. Advertisements for home mortgage loans invariably featured warm-and-fuzzy icons: family, dogs, children. It’s all golden, beautiful, and heart-swelling. As a financial consumer, there are few acts more virtuous than taking out a home mortgage.
Mortgages are not all bad. Mortgages are applied to things that are generally good: homes. And homeownership helps to create a tighter, more caring community. Mortgages usually carry lower interest rates than do personal property or unsecured loans.
Kenneth A. Snowden is Professor of Economics at UNC Greensboro. In “Mortgage Banking in the United States, 1870–1940,” he delineates the path of the mortgage from farm to home.
Mortgages in the U.S. began in the 1870s on the farm. From 1900 to 1940, the U.S. urban population increased from 40% to 56.5%. In the 1940s, the share of farm-to-home mortgages shifted, so that the majority of mortgages were now applied to the residential market. In other words, the classic home mortgage that we all know.
Yet debt is debt, no matter how you slice it. Zillow’s United States Home Prices & Values page tells us that the average price of a house in the United States is currently $248,857. The average mortgage interest rate is 3.41% (30-year FHA fixed rate).
When you’re finished with that sucker (or when it has finished you off), you will have paid a mind-boggling $148,948 in interest. Interest alone.
