Well, you can get a 110%-equity, interest-only, variable-rate mortgage, and there are borrowers insane enough to accept those terms and lenders irresponsible enough to offer them. guaranteed to evoke a violent reaction from police is to challenge their right to "define the situation." --- David Graeber citing Marc Cooper
I know this theory is averse to the banking community, but consider this: who profits off your equity while you're paying the mortgage interest? Why shouldn't people profit off their own equity? While I recognize these loans have been much abused to leverage people into houses they can't afford, I was very close to an I/O loan before finding an incredible fixed-rate. The thing is, my house still only cost 2.5 X my salary. If you're using an I/O to get into a house that's 5 X your salary, then that's abuse. Initially, these I/O loans were intended as consumer-frinedly loans that came out after bank deregulation in the United States, and the banks absoltuely hated them.