Portal:Housing

A mortgage loan or simply mortgage (/ˈmɔːrɡɪdʒ/), in civil law jurisdictions known also as a hypothec loan, is a loan used either by purchasers of real property to raise funds to buy real estate, or by existing property owners to raise funds for any purpose while putting a lien on the property being mortgaged. The loan is "secured" on the borrower's property through a process known as mortgage origination. This means that a legal mechanism is put into place which allows the lender to take possession and sell the secured property ("foreclosure" or "repossession") to pay off the loan in the event the borrower defaults on the loan or otherwise fails to abide by its terms. The word mortgage is derived from a Law French term used in Britain in the Middle Ages meaning "death pledge" and refers to the pledge ending (dying) when either the obligation is fulfilled or the property is taken through foreclosure. A mortgage can also be described as "a borrower giving consideration in the form of a collateral for a benefit (loan)".

Mortgage borrowers can be individuals mortgaging their home or they can be businesses mortgaging commercial property (for example, their own business premises, residential property let to tenants, or an investment portfolio). The lender will typically be a financial institution, such as a bank, credit union or building society, depending on the country concerned, and the loan arrangements can be made either directly or indirectly through intermediaries. Features of mortgage loans such as the size of the loan, maturity of the loan, interest rate, method of paying off the loan, and other characteristics can vary considerably. The lender's rights over the secured property take priority over the borrower's other creditors, which means that if the borrower becomes bankrupt or insolvent, the other creditors will only be repaid the debts owed to them from a sale of the secured property if the mortgage lender is repaid in full first. (Full article...)

• ... that a condominium conversion of Manhattan House cost US$1.1 billion and took ten years?
• ... that the Twin Parks housing project in New York City, the site of a January 2022 fire that killed seventeen people, won architectural awards after it was constructed in the early 1970s?
• ... that entrepreneur Ian Schrager paid a record $9 million for two apartments at the Majestic in New York City, but he never lived there?
• ... that you can see the sea from every apartment in Arlington House, Margate?
• ... that the 32-story Bridge Apartments in New York City were built directly above a 12-lane freeway?
• ... that Compaq placed the built-in trackball of the LTE Lite on its display housing?
• ... that a conversion plan led to the "Battle of the Century"?
• ... that residents at Alterlaa, a housing complex in Vienna, have large concrete planters in which plants can be grown?

... that the Logan Fontenelle Housing Project in Omaha, Nebraska, along with restrictive covenants and redlining, were used to segregate African Americans in the Near North Side neighborhood?

Other "Did you know" facts...

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