I am a journalist doing some research on a story I'd like to write,
about community mortgages. It's essentially the idea of a group of
people taking on one family's mortgage and throwing their collective
money at it in order to pay it off more quickly, then doing the same
thing with another family's mortgage. The goal is to decrease the
amount of interest paid to the bank by decreasing the term of the
mortgage. Have you ever seen this in action? What did you think of it?

Thank you!

Sarah

"Sarah" wrote in message
oups.com...
I am a journalist doing some research on a story I'd like to write,
about community mortgages. It's essentially the idea of a group of
people taking on one family's mortgage and throwing their collective
money at it in order to pay it off more quickly, then doing the same
thing with another family's mortgage. The goal is to decrease the
amount of interest paid to the bank by decreasing the term of the
mortgage. Have you ever seen this in action? What did you think of it?

Thank you!

Sarah
To be honest, it sounds like another way to make some lawyers richer... in
both drawing up the terms and conditions, and down the road, when things go
awry.
lucy

A quick Google indicates that that is not the common meaning of
"community mortgages". The primary meaning is where banks, through
misguided altruism, customize mortgages for police officers and
teachers so that they can live in a particular city where real estate
values have gotten very high.

The other hit I got was some deal in the Phillipines run by NGO's where
the government makes the loans, which sounds like a good way to siphon
off government money into the bank accounts of crooks.

What you describe doesn't have any reasoning behind it, why on earth
would people pool their money to pay off someone else's mortgage ?
That's why we have banks, where we pool (save) our money and then the
bank lends it out. If my neighbor can't pay off his mortgage I don't
give enough of a cr@p to lend him MY money, perhaps he should quit
drinking and smoking, and get steady a job instead of sitting on his
ass.

I woul dlike to see hte guovernment do less to jack up housing prices.
FHA, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, all tend to work for the benefit of
developers. And that $250,000 tax exemption did nothing but fuel
housing inflation, which is the opposite of what our society should be
aiming for - we should keep housing prices low so everyone who wants
to, can buy their own place.

"I am a journalist doing some research on a story I'd like to write,
about community mortgages. It's essentially the idea of a group of
people taking on one family's mortgage and throwing their collective
money at it in order to pay it off more quickly, then doing the same
thing with another family's mortgage. The goal is to decrease the
amount of interest paid to the bank by decreasing the term of the
mortgage. Have you ever seen this in action? What did you think of it?
"

One of the dumbest schemes I've ever heard of. If a homeowner has
extra money available to throw at something, they can reduce the amount
of interest they pay on THEIR OWN MORTGAGE by simply making additonal
principal payments, which will reduce the term of the loan. And what
happens when the group pays off the mortgage of a homeowner and then
the homeowner disappears or goes bankrupt without in turn making
payments to the group? Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out
this has to be a scam that only really benefits the organizers.

What you described sounds the same as a Cooperative community,
sometimes called "Co-ops" which are legit and legal communities.