House Warming History!

Did you know that the word mortgage directly translates to “dead pledge”?

Back in the day, pre great depression 1900’s, folks were putting down much bigger down payments than the 20% we cough up today. As a result their home loans weren't as large, and the time period allotted for repayment was much shorter, we’re talking 5 to 10 years. Because it was actually feasible to do so quickly, people of this time period prioritized paying off their mortgage in the short number of years they had signed on for. After the lump sum was paid off, homes were owned free and clear. People who had spent the last decade forking over a lot of income to pay off their home debt, now had a lot of cash flow freed up. As it would be for people today, this was a big deal, and a real reason to celebrate.

The term housewarming, stems from the customary celebration method of paying off ones mortgage by burning it at a party you would hold as the owner of a home free from loan debt! The warming, would be from a fire, built with the goal of tossing in your loan paperwork and watching those suckers burn.

Sounds pretty gratifying, doesn’t it?

Once one’s home was paid off, it was customary that the homeowner would never leave, or sell that property. The idea of taking on the mortgage paying process again and starting from square one, sounded to people like a real suck fest. Why would one not just live on for the rest of their years in what they own? The economic disaster of the great depression really screwed up this process. People were no longer able to pay off their homes, and a massive amount of home loan holders were forced to default. The Federal Housing Administration came on the scene, with the OG fixed interest rate loan. This gave home buyers the ability to pay smaller monthly amounts over a longer number of years.

Currently, home buyers spend roughly half their lives paying back their home loan. We have a lot more avenues to accrue debt, many more types of loans taken out than people did in the early 1900’s. Coming up with the initial downpayment is super hard for a lot of Americans these days. For people who need to refinance in order to get their rate down, you are basically pulling that Candyland card, that sends you down the licorice ladder right back to the beginning.

Given this bummer of a transition, the morphing of what a housewarming is makes perfect sense. People who buy a house, now party to celebrate the beginning of a super long process, that is the journey to paying that bad boy off. It’s so hard to get in the darn door with this home buying thing, just getting that paperwork that states the home is now in your name (even though you have decade upon decades of paying it off) is a real accomplishment in and of its self.

The Monday Team is here to make that goal a reality, and get you in the door, so you can party to celebrate obtaining that new paperwork. But don’t burn it guys, even though it sounds awesome., you need that stuff, its important.