As a very challenging year for all of us is drawing to a close, we thought it would be nice to invite our partners to take a little breather and enjoy some fun facts about mortgages. After all, there’s no such thing as knowing too much about mortgages, and who knows – you might even find the answer to a game-winning question of a family Jeopardy game over the holidays!

Red Front Door 

In Scotland, people paint the front door of their house red once they’ve finally paid off the mortgage. Now, we don’t recommend running around asking any neighbors with red front doors about the status of their mortgage, but it does make you wonder …

From The Old French Word ...

Mortgage derives from the Old French word, mortgage, or “mort Gaige,” which means “dead pledge.” When the mortgage was paid off, it “died.”

Fannie, Meet Freddie

Freddie Mac was created in 1970, just after Fannie Mae became a publicly traded company. The two entities combine to guarantee about half of all mortgages in the United States.

A Poem About Marriage

The earliest use of the word mortgage (spelled “morgage”) was in the poem “Confessio Amantis,” which was written in the 1300s. However, in that poem the word was used to describe marriage, not a home loan.

20%

Fixed-rate mortgages were first offered in 1971, at around 7.5% according to Freddie Mac. In 1980, the rates jumped to nearly 20%. Currently, mortgage interest rates are at historical lows. And even though they are expected to climb through the rest of this year and into 2021, it’s still an incredible time to get a mortgage.

88%

According to NAR, 88% of homebuyers rely on a mortgage to finance the purchase of their home. In fact, most buyers finance 90% of the cost of the home, meaning they’re only putting 10% down.

Now, that’s all some fascinating stuff! We hope you enjoyed learning these fun facts as much as we did. Thanks for taking this time with us, and consider yourself well-armed for any future trivia nights that happen to feature mortgage-related questions!