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Mortgage delinquencies increased by 6 basis points from the second quarter, as the performance of Federal Housing Administration-insurance loans declined, the Mortgage Bankers Association National Delinquency Survey found.Recently, ICE Mortgage Technology executive Andy Walden said FHA loan performance trends were a yellow flag for the mortgage industry.Delinquent mortgages made up 3.99% of all outstanding loans when seasonally adjusted in the third quarter, up from 3.93% in the second quarter and 3.92% one year prior.This is the second highest delinquency rate since an all-time low was recorded in the second quarter of 2023. The 3.37% posted for that period was 62 basis points below the most recent data.While the foreclosure start rate was still rather low at 0.20%, it was 3 basis points higher than the previous quarter. The share of loans in the foreclosure process was 50 basis points, up 2 basis points from the second quarter and 5 basis points over the third quarter of 2024."Since this time last year, the FHA seriously delinquent rate — which includes 90-plus day delinquencies and loans in foreclosure — increased by almost 50 basis points," Marina Walsh, the MBA's vice president of industry analysis, said in a press release. "In contrast, the conventional and Veterans Affairs seriously delinquent rates remained relatively flat."The period's results were not affected by the government shutdown or the end of pandemic related FHA loss mitigation programs, although those are likely to affect delinquency activity going forward, Walsh said.FHA borrowers are more affected by a softer labor market, other personal debt obligations, along with increases in taxes, homeowners insurance premiums and other fees, she said."Additionally, home price declines in some parts of the country may lessen the ability to sell or refinance," Walsh warned. It is the growth in values which provides a level of protection for distressed borrowers in recent years.While the seasonally adjusted serious delinquent borrower rate (90 or more days) of 111 basis points was unchanged from the second quarter, the shorter term buckets were higher.For borrowers who are between 30 and 59 days late on their scheduled payment, the rate increased 2 basis points to 2.12%, while between 60 and 89 days rose 4 basis points to 76 basis points.FHA mortgage rates were 21 basis points higher to 10.78% versus the second quarter, while year-over-year they are 32 basis points more.Conventional loans overall late payments rose 2 basis points to 2.62% from three months prior but reported a 1 basis point drop versus the third quarter of 2024.While the overall VA rate rose 18 basis points to 4.5% between the second and third quarters, it dropped 8 basis points from one year ago.The seriously delinquent rate decreased 2 basis points for conventional loans, increased 30 basis points for FHA loans, and decreased by 1 basis point for VA loans quarter-to-quarter.Versus the third quarter 2024, this fell by 4 basis points for conventional loans, but rose 47 basis points for FHA loans and 4 basis points for VA loans.In recent reports from bond rating agencies KBRA and Fitch, both are expecting delinquency rates to increase next year.

Bayview Asset Management and three affiliates have agreed to a settlement with plaintiffs over a data breach lawsuit for a hack that affected 5.8 million people in 2021.The sides agreed to basic terms of a class action settlement, subject to court approval and the final dismissing of the case, according to a court document filed Thursday. They plan to file a written, formal agreement within 45 days.The parties also asked for all current deadlines related to pending motions to be paused.The settlement agreement signals the beginning of the end for the three-and-a-half-year legal battle. Customers affected by the breach began filing lawsuits against the company and its servicing subsidiaries, Community Loan Servicing, Lakeview Loan Servicing and Pingora Loan Servicing, in March 2022 after Lakeview said in public notices the breach impacted 2.5 million borrowers between Oct. 27, 2021 and Dec. 7, 2021."This (personal identifiable information) was compromised due to defendant's negligent, careless and intentional acts and omissions and the failure to protect the PII of plaintiff and class members," wrote Daniel Rosenthal, an attorney with DBR Law, P.A., at the time in a complaint on behalf of an affected California customer.Dozens of plaintiffs wanted to enforce multiple cybersecurity measures at the firm and collect damages, but a judge gutted all but one of their claims in December 2023.California, Maryland, North Carolina and Washington state entities then led a group of more than 50 regulators in an action imposing a $20 million penalty on Bayview's affiliates in January, citing flaws in the way the companies handled the breach. The servicing entities also agreed to ensure their cybersecurity efforts comply with federal and New York State Department of Financial Services standards. Bayview has since acquired Guild Mortgage for $1.3 billion and plans to privatize the lender once the deal is finalized, which is expected by the end of the year.

Left to righ: Bryce Bradley, Rosegate Mortgage; Craig Freel, Rice Park Capital Management Private investment firm Rice Park Capital Management will acquire a retail and consumer-direct lender one year after the two businesses signed an initial partnership agreement. As in several recent mergers, the servicing pipeline potential figured prominently behind the Minneapolis-based financial firm's decision to acquire Rosegate Mortgage. Rice Park specializes in mortgage servicing rights, with the two companies first inking a deal in October 2024 for the investment firm to help provide financing for Rosegate borrowers. "Acquiring Rosegate enables us to offer a fully integrated mortgage investment platform that we believe enhances value for our investors through improved servicing retention and strategic recapture," said Craig Freel, Rice Park president and co-chief investment officer, in a press release.Rice Park's MSR portfolio currently holds approximately $61 billion in unpaid balance, serviced through subsidiary Nexus Nova. The merger will combine operations of Nexus Nova and Charlotte, North Carolina-based Rosegate into a single business entity within the larger Rice Park organizational structure. Other financial terms of the deal were not disclosed."We're thrilled to be integrated with Rice Park and are excited to build out what we believe will be a high-quality servicing retention and recapture model," Rosegate Mortgage President and CEO Bryce Bradley added."Now within the Rice Park family, we are able to introduce ourselves to more customers," Bradley continued, "while continuing to enhance our organization and grow both the consumer-direct and retail lending channels."The addition of Rosegate will lead Rice Park to "selectively perform recapture across its MSR holdings" that will generate optimal returns and mitigate prepayment risk, the investment firm said. While it offers recapture potential for the newly combined company, Rice Park leaders emphasized they would continue to work with existing partners, who should see no changes in existing relationships. "Our platform is designed to offer flexibility — providing capital and MSR solutions that preserve and support our partners' customer relationships," Freel said. The changes mean Rice Park will adopt a dual-channel strategy. For its MSR acquisitions with existing recapture terms, it will continue to support and respect the partnerships. Rice Park will utilize Rosegate to pursue recapture directly on MSRs without an embedded recapture agreement.Rosegate Mortgage will keep existing branding and continue to operate from its Charlotte home base. The recurring M&A theme of 2025The Rice Park-Rosegate deal comes as the latest example of merger-and-acquisition activity driven by recapture pipelines in 2025. It arrives after the blockbuster merger between Rocket and Mr. Cooper led many mortgage lenders and servicing businesses to evaluate existing models and strategies in order to best capitalize on future business. In between the Rocket and current Rice Park deals, the mortgage industry has seen similar subsequent transactions combining established originations and servicing leaders, including the merger agreement between Bayview Asset Management and Guild Mortgage. The recapture potential and servicing book of Reliance First Capital also played a factor in its acquisition by Carrington Mortgage Services in late October.Other recent M&A deals involve Union Home Mortgage and Anniemac Home Mortgage, both of which have acquired two lenders in 2025. News within the past two weeks also featured mergers between Maryland-based firms NFM Lending and Homespire Mortgage, as well as an agreement uniting Atlantic Coast Mortgage and Tidewater Mortgage Services. 

The U.S. residential housing economy growth will have slowed by 1.1% this year, from 2% in 2024, a result of cost pressures derived from higher tariffs on builder supplies like lumber, labor issues and weaker consumer and homebuilder sentiment about the sector, Fitch Ratings said.Over the next two years, it expects restrained growth rates of 1.3% in 2026 and 1.9% in 2027.While supply remains tight, Fitch's U.S. Cross-Sector Housing Monitor found demand indicators to be weakening."New home inventory has declined slightly, while existing home inventory continues to improve, helped by declining mortgage rates that should spur turnover and demand," a Fitch press release said. "Fitch expects 30-year mortgage rates to end 2025 at 6.25% and decline further to 5.8% in 2026, driven by Fed policy rate cuts and a narrower spread."The Mortgage Bankers Association's Weekly Application Survey for the week ended Nov. 7 had the conforming 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaging 6.34%. The 10-year Treasury yield closed that day at 4.09%, making the spread 225 basis points, higher than the 180 basis point norm. The current level is still better than the 245 basis point spread in April.In an effort to improve affordability, the Trump Administration floated the ideas of a 50-year FRM, as well as a conforming assumable mortgage to a mixed reaction at best based on social media comments from those in the industry.Predictions of home price growthFitch believes home price growth in 2026 will be flat, following an annual increase of 1.5% this year and 4% for 2024, with affordability and local supply gluts having the biggest impact. Regional variations will play a role; high inventory in the South will hold prices down but low supply in the Northeast will cause values to rise.Fitch forecasts single-family starts to fall 5.5% this year, compared with 6.8% growth in 2024, while multifamily should rise by 13%; this is up from a 25.1% decline last year.Its outlook for new home sales this year is for a 3% decline."Homebuilders continue to offer aggressive discounts or interest rate buydowns to entice buyers, but low affordability and weak consumer confidence will keep potential buyers on the sidelines," Fitch said in the report.When it comes to tariffs, Canada and Mexico represent 25% and 10% of total construction-related imports respectively, the report noted.KBRA's view of the housing marketThe analysts at Kroll Bond Rating Agency are more conservative than Fitch's when it comes to the rate outlook. It expects rates to remain in the 6% to 6.5% range "as inflation remains sticky and unemployment edges higher."But it agrees home prices will remain flat when looked at nationwide but with wide regional differences.Another theme for the industry to watch next year is for state-level regulatory activity to rise amid "slow federal reform."What will next year's PLS activity end atPrivate-label mortgage-securitization activity should reach $160 billion in 2026, which will be a 15% increase from KBRA's 2025 prediction for $138 billion. The market will benefit from tighter spreads, greater liquidity and increased investor demand.For what it termed "esoteric RMBS issuance," this category of reverse mortgage, residential transition loans and home equity investment products should grow 7% in volume. RTL alone should increase 32%, countering an 8% drop in reverse mortgage securitization activity.In a section of the report titled "regulatory uncertainties," KBRA notes while the government-sponsored enterprise reform narrative out of the Trump Administration continues, no timeline exists for exiting conservatorship and the Federal Housing Finance Agency's latest strategic plan does not reference it, the Nov. 12 report said.Outlook at both KBRA and Fitch for delinquency ratesKBRA expects delinquencies to continue to rise next year, particularly in nonprime securitization, but the overall RMBS market is "well positioned" to handle the increase.The nonprime 90 day or more delinquency rate is elevated but has stabilized this year."With modification rates declining, this likely reflects underlying performance improvement, though risk layering and income volatility remain key concerns for self-employed borrowers or loans underwritten to debt service coverage ratio or bank statement documentation types," the KBRA report said.Fitch pointed out residential mortgage and home equity line of credit delinquency rates are above where they were prior to the pandemic.The rating agency "expects the performance of its rated RMBS portfolio to weaken further as rising inflation and lower real household income challenge borrowers. Stretched affordability and higher debt-to-income ratios will lift the serious delinquency rate to 1.7% in 2026 from 1.4% in 2025."

Figure Technology Solutions posted a strong quarter in its first public earnings report, including $2.4 billion in home equity line of credit lending. The fintech, which went public in September, recorded $89.8 million in net income for the third quarter, exceeding a Standard & Poor's consensus estimate of $35 million. That also surpassed its $27.4 million profit in the year ago period, the only other single quarter for which Figure provided information Thursday. While company executives discussed Figure's broader operations in Friday's earnings call, they described a growing home loan business which counts over 246 partners. Figure, which works with over half of the top 20 independent mortgage banks, also said it onboarded "one of the largest" mortgage servicers in the quarter.The lender says it's the top nonbank HELOC producer, and that claim is so far undisputed, as the nation's biggest originators don't usually specify their volume in this product in earnings. In sharing more detail about its originations, the fintech said its average production cost per loan was $730 at the end of last year.At the end of the quarter, Figure-branded HELOCs had average customer interest rates of 9% and loan balances of $90,000, whereas its partner-branded HELOCs had slightly higher rates and balances of 9.2% and $93,000. The unpaid principal balance of the company's over 302,000 HELOCs was $11.1 billion at the end of the quarter. The lender also warehouse lines totaling $1.85 billion, and customers were able to borrow up to $41.2 million on undrawn HELOC loans as of Sept. 30. Figure's non-HELOC lending and beyondBesides traditional home equity lines, Figure reported $80 million in volume in the quarter from other products including crypto-backed loans, small-to-medium business loans, debt service coverage ratio loans and HELOC for seniors which are interest-only. CEO Michael Tannenbaum additionally described another growing segment of originations, first-lien HELOCs typically used to pay off an existing loan, akin to cash-out or rate-and-term refinances. Some of the fintech's partners are adopting the first-line product but not offering customers the more-traditional use for a HELOC. "Where we really see growth there, just to be even more specific, is among especially small balance first-lien," he said, "because the cost to originate for Figure is $1,000 whereas industry average is $12 (thousand)."Executives in Friday's call also spoke about the company's other ventures, including Figure Connect, a blockchain-based marketplace for private credit, its MERS competitor DART, and the public Provenance Blockchain.Earlier this year Figure also launched a stablecoin, $YLDS. It's also rolling out Democratized Prime, a DeFi marketplace which allows participants to lend their assets or excess cash at a market-clearing rate. Democratized Prime includes HELOC, crypto loans and an Exchange Margin asset. Borrower fees are 50 basis points of the outstanding balance, according to the company. The platform hasn't generated material revenue yet, but announced Synergy One as its first institutional client. "Our frictionless, short-term liquidity funding marketplace is delivering financing rates below those achievable in wholesale capital markets," said Tannenbaum. "This not only validates DeFi's potential efficiency but also gives us a roadmap to extend this to other asset classes."In yet another rollout, Figure this week said it will issue tokenized stock which will trade on its own platform and be convertible to shares of Class A common stock on a 1-for-1 basis. While the company will disclose more information next week, Mike Cagney, Figure's co-founder and executive chairman, called the offering a "transformational" opportunity to build a new capital market ecosystem. Figure posted net revenue of $156.3 million in the third quarter, up from $101 million in the year ago period. As of the end of the quarter, the lender had $1 billion in cash and cash equivalents.The company's stock, which opened at $36 per share in its Wall Street debut two months ago, was up around 20% Friday midday, trading at $41.55 per share.

Mortgage application fraud risk increased on an annual basis during the third quarter as one in every 118 applications had indicators of potential misstatements, according to Cotality.When compared with the third quarter of 2024, fraud risk increased by 8.2% but this dropped by 2.7% from the previous quarter, the National Mortgage Application Fraud Risk Index reported. This quarter-to-quarter decline came as application volume increased by 8%. Purchases made up two-thirds of the third quarter's total volume. Government-guaranteed products had a 25% share.Why application fraud risk increasedThe index measures six areas but only one category, undisclosed real estate fraud, was higher versus the previous year.This category, up 9.1% from a year ago, includes undisclosed debt, possible occupancy misrepresentation, and/or derogatory credit events like foreclosure, notice of default, a short sale and other similar happenings being hidden from the lender.Another report, this one from Transunion, found that credit washing and synthetic identity creation is a growing problem across all asset types.Occupancy misrepresentation has been in the headlines because of actions taken by the federal government in recent months.The growth in non-owner occupied properties is a contributing factor to the large rise in this fraud category, Cotality said."As the percentage of investors grows, more borrowers have multiple properties and mortgages," said Matt Seguin, senior principal, Cotality Fraud Solutions, in a press release. Some of these are people who originally occupied the property, looked to sell but were unable to get their price so they kept it and became a landlord, the report noted."Oftentimes, those mortgages are being refinanced simultaneously, and they may be with different lenders," and he surmised this is why a continuing uptick in this category is taking place.For the third quarter, Cotality estimated one in 45 investment property applications and one in 26 multi-family applications have indications of fraud risk.What underwriters need to be on the lookout forCotality is noticing increased alerts on occupancy risk. Those include the owner claiming they are occupying the property when a rental listing was found on the property or a primary residence that has a different tax mailing address.Other areas of increasing risk trends include income and identity, Cotality said.The buyer has a high income compared to the value of the property being purchased, which could be an indicator of inflated assets or misrepresentation of occupancy.Meanwhile, indicative of the growth of synthetic identity fraud is more alerts regarding the use of a deceased borrower's Social Security number or other names associated with a number provided.Declining property value related alerts grew 42% from the second quarter and 400% year-over-year."For lenders, this is a critical signal," Cotality warned in the report, saying in underwriting, they must take extra care to review appraisals and supporting documentation. "Exercise caution in areas experiencing negative home price growth to ensure sound lending decisions and mitigate risk."

A pickup in originations, home price shifts, delinquencies and an intensifying focus on recapture are among the dynamics reshaping the mortgage servicing rights market, speakers at an industry event said Thursday.Current production forecasts project growth that extends through next year with housing values softening in some regions, said Mike Fratantoni, chief economist at the Mortgage Bankers Association, while speaking at the Informa's IMN MSR conference.Originations are on track to rise to $2.2 trillion next year from $2 trillion this year, but they could level out after that and remain purchase focused, Fratantoni said."What's changed over the past couple of months is we've become a little less optimistic," he said. "We brought our '27 and '28 forecasts more in line with '26 so not looking for much growth beyond that $2.2 trillion."Need-based sales of MSRs have slowed as a result as origination has slowly picked up in the last couple of years compared to 2022 and 2023, said Nick Letica, chief investment officer at Two."There was definitely a fair amount of selling that was related to originators and servicers that needed to just raise funds to support their business operations," he said. "These couple of years have been a lot thinner."Letica estimated deal flow has been around 35% of what was seen in peak years, fueled by sales that are more strategic than needs-based, with bulk packages trading less often but larger in size in some cases.Retention is up, market seeks a standard for recaptureCustomer value is increasingly driving trades and the average retention rate was the highest it's been since 2021 in the first half of this year, according to Fratantoni. The average retention rate was 20% between January and June, as compared with 15% last year.Also, growth in recapture's role in the MSR market is driving interest in establishing standards for financial reporting on it.Pennymac asked the Financial Accounting Standards Board to make a determination related to this, Jake Katz, head of analytics research at LSEG Data and Analytics, noted. NMN confirmed that Pennymac did provide a letter to FASB requesting this over the summer."Consistency would make it easier," Katz said, noting that auditors have not been aligned on this point.What current delinquency rates look likeFrom a loan performance perspective, Fratantoni said that he anticipates delinquencies could increase around a half of a percentage point over the next six months or so, and the current home price environment means some could proceed further down the path.Delinquencies remain low in the government-sponsored enterprise market but those for Federal Housing Administration-insured loans have risen significantly, he said."I'm still amazed at how tight the underwriting standards are for GSE loans. It really is sort of a tale of two cities," said Letica.Preliminary data suggests that the FHA delinquency rate in the third quarter approached 11% compared to the 10.5% recorded for the second quarter, according to Fratantoni.The upward creep in delinquency rates could boost loan costs with nonperforming loans costing $1,700 per unit to service on average compared to $180 for a mortgage that's paying on schedule, the MBA economist said.

Home prices are squeezing potential buyers out of the market, and the true cost of homeownership is rising even higher.The hidden costs of homeownership now total nearly $16,000, climbing faster than incomes, a new analysis from Zillow and Thumbtack found. That's an additional $1,325 a month on top of the mortgage payment.According to the report, $10,946 is spent on maintenance, $3,030 is spent on property taxes and $2,003 is spent on homeowner's insurance. These costs have risen by a combined 4.7% in the past year, while household incomes increased 3.8%.Insurance premiums are responsible for a bulk of the price jump, soaring 48% nationwide since February 2020. "Insurance costs are rising nearly twice as fast as homeowner incomes," said Kara Ng, Zillow senior economist, in a press release Thursday. "It's not just a budget line item. It's a barrier to entry for aspiring first-time buyers and for families already stretched thin. Buyers who are already facing affordability challenges in today's market need to understand and budget for these less obvious expenses when calculating how much home they can truly afford."Insurance premiums just top $2,000 on a typical home nationwide, but in Miami, premiums average $4,607 per year, up 72% since 2020. Other Florida metros have been hit similarly, including Jacksonville (72%), Tampa (69%) and Orlando (68%). New Orleans has also seen a spike of 79%.Total hidden costs are highest in coastal metro areas, such as New York, San Francisco and Boston, where they reach $24,381, $22,781 and $21,320, respectively."Home maintenance is often one of the most overlooked parts of owning a home when it comes to budgeting for the year," said Morgan Olsen, Thumbtack home expert, in the release. "Think of preventative maintenance as a safety net for your biggest asset. Spending a little each season helps spread out costs and keeps your home prepared for whatever the weather brings."Home prices are still trending up, increasing 1.7% year over year for a typical single-family home in the third quarter, according to the National Association of Realtors, despite sellers holding little leverage. Price increases kept a similar pace last month, rising 1.3% year over year and 0.4% month over month, a Homes.com report found Thursday.Home sales are starting to slip as a result, falling 0.3% from a year ago during the four weeks ending Nov. 9, the first decline in four months, a new Redfin report found. Homes that are selling take a median of 49 days to go under contract, the longest span for this time of year since 2019.

Better Home & Finance will likely be in the red for a while, but is gaining momentum with new partnerships and growing volume, its CEOVishal Garg said in a Thursday earnings call.  The New York City-based lender posted a $39.1 million net loss for the third quarter, and hasn't gotten much closer to breaking even since going public in August 2023. While the company's revenue also inched down from the second quarter, its production continued to trend up at $1.21 billion in the recent period. Garg, the lone executive to speak in Thursday's earnings call, further promoted Better's artificial intelligence bona fides and discussed his firm's growing partnership pipeline. He noted that "the largest incumbent solution" — Intercontinental Exchange, though he did not name the company — was going through an SDK change and forcing reintegrations with all of its partners. "It's been an interesting moment where a lot of people are very, very frustrated with the incumbent solutions that are out there and are looking for something new," he said. The lender's partnerships include offering home equity loans with Finance of America, arrangements with two large servicers, and a new deal with an unnamed "top-five" non-bank originator to use Better's Tinman platform with its direct-to-consumer and mortgage-servicing rights recapture teams. Garg suggested those partnerships will help Better reach $500 million of funding per month and beyond. In touting AI tools, Better demoed its AI Mortgage Advisor, which advised Garg on a loan transaction the CEO compared to being in a Zoom call with an expert. Garg also described how no underwriter at Better is allowed to decline a loan without checking with its AI voice assistant Betsy, to determine alternatives to restructure the loan, a process the CEO said was a first in the industry. Inside Better's financial numbersThe lender broke $1 billion of origination volume for the second consecutive period, with increased home equity line of credit and refinance volume adding to slightly lower purchase volume in the third quarter. The company maintained its projection to reach positive adjusted EBITDA by the end of the third quarter of 2026. While its net income slipped from a $36.2 million net loss in the second quarter, it was a step up from a $54.2 million loss last summer. On an adjusted basis, the third quarter net loss was $28.4 million. Garg has frequently mentioned Better's lower costs to originate, and said its contribution margin per fund has risen from $500 in the last third quarter to $1,772 this year. The company's customer acquisition cost was over $3,000 per loan, as Better is pre-approving many consumers that may not close a loan for up to 18 months. "In the last rate cycle, when rates were coming down, our CAC on a refi was $1,000 a loan," said Garg. "There is a lot of positive convexity in the CAC as the rate environment changes."Better's stock was trading at around $55 per share midday Thursday, down nearly 7% following the earnings figures. The lender's stock had surged in September and October to upwards of $86 per share, after a hedge fund manager posted to social media about the company, describing it as the "Shopify" of mortgages. 

The Trump administration floated the idea of a 50-year mortgage this weekend with the intention of improving affordability, but some data analyses indicate it could do the opposite.The interest paid for a 50-year mortgage on a $500,000 loan with a 6.10% annual percentage rate, roughly the current average for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, would total more than double the price of the loan at $1.1 million, according to LendingTree.Comparatively, the total interest paid on a 30-year loan with the same APR would come out to $591,000 while paying just $361 more a month. The interest paid on a 15-year loan would be $264,000 on monthly payments of $4,246, about $1,200 more per month than the 30-year loan."It is kind of a half-baked idea to get the general public thinking, 'Oh, that's great," and then it actually doesn't help affordability when you look at the numbers at all," said Robbie Chrisman, host of Daily Mortgage News, on the Mortgage Matters: The Weekly Round Up show Wednesday.The difference becomes even more stark when applying a 7% APR, roughly the average rate at the start of the year. The interest paid on a 50-year loan would total $1.3 million, compared to $698,000 for a 30-year loan and $309,000 for a 15-year loan, while monthly payments would be $3,008, $3,326 and $4,494, respectively.A 50-year mortgage would likely face higher interest rates as well.The 50-year loan would not make sense for anybody other than the mortgage holder due to the sheer amount of accumulated interest, said Dan Sugg, chief mortgage lending officer at Michigan First Credit Union, on Mortgage Matters.A 50-year mortgage would also hinder homeowners' ability to build equity, as the early years of any mortgage is spent paying more toward interest than the original loan balance. For a 50-year mortgage on a $500,000 loan with a 6.10% APR, a borrower would have only paid about $21,000 of the original balance in 10 years, just 4.2%. Meanwhile, a borrower would have paid more than $80,000 on a 30-year mortgage, about 16% of the original balance. By the time the 30-year mortgage is completely paid off, the borrower with the 50-year mortgage would have paid off only 26% of the original balance.A 50-year mortgage would also put the homeowner at a higher risk to be underwater on a loan, meaning they would owe more than the house is worth, LendingTree said.In response to the criticism, Donald Trump called the plan "not a big deal" in an interview with Fox News on Monday.