Why 50-Year Mortgages Would Be Bad for Everyone

Why 50-Year Mortgages Would Be Bad for Everyone

Recently, Donald Trump floated the idea of creating 50-year mortgages for American homebuyers, suggesting it could make housing more affordable. At first glance, that might sound like a clever fix. Stretching loans to half a century could reduce monthly payments and help more people qualify for a home.

But in practice, this kind of policy would do the exact opposite. A 50-year mortgage wouldn’t make homes more attainable, it would drive prices higher, trap buyers in debt longer, and make the entire housing market more fragile.

1. Lower Payments, Higher Prices

A 50-year loan would shave a few hundred dollars off the average monthly payment compared to a 30-year loan. Sounds nice, right? But the market doesn’t stand still.

Buyers compete based on what they can pay each month, not on the total cost. If everyone suddenly qualifies for more house, prices simply rise to meet the new ceiling. Within a year or two, those “affordable” payments are gone homes will cost even more.

In other words, longer loans don’t fix affordability; they inflate it away.

2. Decades of Interest—and Very Little Equity

At 6% interest, a 50-year borrower would pay nearly twice as much total interest as someone with a 30-year mortgage. Worse, most of that money goes toward interest, not principal, for decades.

By year 30 of your 50 year loan, you’d still owe over $200,000 more* than a 30-year  loanon the same home. That means less equity to tap, less flexibility to sell, and far less long-term financial security. And this assumes the rate will be the same. In reality, it’s more likely that 50 year loans would carry a meaningful premium, perhaps .25% or even up to .75%mover their 30 year counterparts.

Homeownership has historically built wealth because people eventually own their homes outright. A 50-year mortgage delays that wealth transfer until you’re… well, probably not around to enjoy it.

3. The Illusion of Affordability

Policymakers and lenders love the optics of “helping buyers qualify.” But stretching loans longer is a symptom of affordability failure, not a cure. Real affordability comes from building more housing, improving wage growth, and stabilizing interest rates—not redefining a lifetime of debt as progress.

When you make a product easier to finance without fixing supply, prices just chase the new financing tool upward. We saw this with adjustable-rate loans in the early 2000s, and we know how that ended.

Longer loans don’t fix affordability; they inflate it away.

4. Greater Market Risk for Everyone

Longer amortizations push risk forward in time. Borrowers stay leveraged for decades, meaning even modest dips in home values can wipe out equity. If job loss, divorce, or relocation hits in year ten, a 50-year borrower might owe nearly the entire original balance.

That fragility doesn’t just affect individual homeowners. It makes the entire market more volatile.

5. It Rewards the Wrong Problem

We should be rewarding productive affordability—denser housing, efficient construction, local zoning reform—not financial engineering that papers over the problem.

A 50-year mortgage would encourage higher leverage, higher home prices, and slower equity growth. In short: it helps lenders write more loans but leaves homeowners and communities footing the bill.

The Bottom Line

Trump’s proposed 50-year mortgage may sound like a quick fix, but it’s really a band-aid on a broken system. It would delay wealth building, amplify financial risk, and make homeownership harder, not easier, for future generations.

If we want genuine affordability, we need policies that build more homes and lower costs, not ones that stretch debt across half a lifetime.

Thinking about buying or selling in Seattle? Let’s talk about what actually does make sense in today’s market—strategies that build long-term value instead of adding decades to your mortgage.
Contact us at Get Happy at Home to start the conversation.

*Assuming a home purchase of $1,000,000 with a $200,000 downpayment.