Despite pushback, broker confident 50-year mortgages are ‘100% coming’
Housing affordability is already one of the big storylines early in 2026. The Trump administration has already announced a couple of moves to try to improve affordability. Congress is also working on new housing legislation.
One additional step, which could come in 2026, is the addition of a 50-year mortgage. The idea was floated by the administration in late 2025 to mixed opinions.
However, one mortgage broker was emphatic that not only were these mortgages coming, but they would be a positive for the industry.
Amir Nurani (pictured top), broker-owner at Left Coast Leaders in California, said he doesn’t understand why brokers aren’t more universally in favor of the new loan type.
“For those who are speaking negatively about it, those individuals simply don't know how to do math,” Nurani told Mortgage Professional America. The reason why people have a pessimistic viewpoint on the 50-year mortgage is the amount of interest that you pay over the life of the loan. If you buy a home for $800,000, you're roughly going to pay $1.6 million in interest over a 50-year time period.
“But the average person will keep their mortgage for seven years. That means refinancing. That means selling the home. That means paying it off. Nobody would keep the home for a 50-year time period.”
Home values are increasing
Nurani said that even if a borrower decides to pay the 50-year mortgage through to completion, the home's value would increase so much that they would still come out ahead.
“If somebody holds a mortgage for 50 years at $800,000 and ends up paying $1.6 million in interest at the end of that 50 years, that seems like a really bad deal,” Nurani said. “They're paying three times what the house is worth. But real estate prices appreciate between 6% and 8% a year. But let’s get conservative and say real estate appreciates on average 5% a year. If it appreciates 5% a year, that means every 14 years, your home value has doubled.
“In a 14-year time period, your $800,000 home is worth $1.6 million. In the next 14-year period, your $1.6 million is worth $3.2 million. You see how the math starts lining up. When you get to the end of a 50-year time period, you have far exceeded the 2x interest that you would have paid had you held that asset for 50 years.”
The possibility of a borrower moving on from the loan before the end of the term, combined with increasing property values, are two reasons why Nurani doesn’t understand the backlash against the idea.
“This is why when I say that the brokers that speak negatively about it don't understand how to do math,” he said. “Now, people will say things like, ‘Yeah, dude, $800,000 home is never going to sell for $2.2 million.’ In La Jolla, there's a subsection called Mount Soledad. If you want to buy a home in Mount Soledad, you're going to pay $5 million. My grandparents, when they came to the US 60 years ago, had an opportunity to buy a home there for $30,000.”
Normalizing the new loan type
Nurani is not only in favor of the 50-year mortgage, but he is also confident it will happen. He thinks the acceptance of longer car loans, along with the 30-year mortgage, provides a blueprint for the acceptance of the 50-year mortgage.
“I think it's going to actually invigorate affordability, and it is 100% coming,” he said. “The reason why I say that is, people are very comfortable with a 30-year mortgage and a five-year car loan. When I was a teenager, car loans were for three years. The five-year loan is now a normalized product. Then the seven-year loan came around. The 30-year mortgage wasn't always a thing, but now it's normalized. I think the 50-year mortgage is going to run along those same lines.”
But he thinks it will take time for it to become a normalized product in the market. However, he’s hopeful that it can be one step in the right direction for improving affordability.
“I think it'll take five to seven years post-launch of the 50-year mortgage for this to transpire,” Nurani said. “I think what will likely happen is that if somebody's had their mortgage for five years on a 50-year mortgage and they go to refinance, it'll be pretty common for people to get a 45-year term.
“As affordability is concerned, there are only a few levers that you can pull there. Price, rate, insurance and tax are the four components that make up your pain. To create more affordability, you have to influence one of those four things.”
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This article is part of our Monthly Spotlight series, which in January focuses on Affordability. Full coverage can be found here.
