The Latest on the Mortgage

So, the money situation (Heloooo Obama?!) is so tight with the banks that we might get our mortgage. Lending practises are tight to the point of insanity. And, Understand, we're talking a loan of 20% of the valuation of house and land. I actually want to go a bit high on what we need, and purchase gold with the balance as a hedge against the mortgage. If gold appreciates then the economy is under water and we need the help. If it doesn't appreciate or loses value then the economy is sound and our usual streams of income are solid and we don't mind the non-movement of gold. This is my idea of mortgage insurance.

It doesn't help that our property is odd to a mortgage lender...off-grid, dirt roads ($25K of gravel, actually, but to them it doesn't count), large acreage. Finding insurance is difficult...wildfire zone, and all that. The lender asked if we had a "comp", a comparable house which was off-grid and large acreage. Actually, we do...the house we sold nine months ago.

Some friends of our are talking about walking away from their mortgage. Even though they love their house. His business isn't what it used to be...down about 50%. As is the value of their house. it just makes economic sense for them to walk away, as the property won't be worth the money they'll be paying monthly for it for at least a decade.

I used to think that a mortgage was a moral valuation...your word of honor to pay, because you agreed to. Now, as I watch corporations (legally defined as "people") walk away every day from underwater commercial mortgage I have realized that this is another form of cultural naivete on my part. The corporations are "bad citizens", as they do always set a new and lower moral tone for the nation (and, I'm sure, internationally). But when they raise the stakes the other players (Poker, it is the National Identity) have to match the ante or fold. Which brings us to the Wikipedia definition of the quaint word, "mortgage. "This comes from the Old French "dead pledge," apparently meaning that the pledge ends (dies) either when the obligation is fulfilled or the property is taken through foreclosure.": So, thanks to the corporations we can drop the word "Mortgage" once and for all and call it the "dead pledge".