[Porsche-O-Phile]

(Semi-related) question - why on earth do lenders insist on making this so difficult on people? Why can't some smart lender just figure, "hey, we'll give people what they actually want and can use - a 40+ year FIXED-RATE mortgage with 100% financing, no closing cost B.S. and none of this making people pay exorbitant sums monthly for a 25 or 30-year fixed or making them constantly have to live in fear, lose sleep and worry over rates with an ARM or I.O."

I'm sure someone out there has to do it, but why on earth it's not more common is simply baffling to me. How people can afford these $3,000, $4,000 and $5,000 (or more) a month payments for a fixed-rate loan on a modest $300k, $400k or $500k homes is something I simply can't understand. Same with how people can lock themselves into these "sucker mortgages" where they're building NO equity whatsoever (i.e. an I.O. loan or a good number of the ARM loans out there). Why not offer the buyer an incentive - the ability to build real equity (with a fixed-rate) AND have an affordable payment? It doesn't seem that there'd be all that much risk to the lender for such a thing. In fact, the risk might even be LESS, since the payments are more affordable. . .

Just a thought. Back to your topic - didn't mean to hijack.