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CrystalMenthol t1_iwvzwvu wrote

Reply to comment by jason_steakums in Home sales fell for the ninth straight month in October, as higher mortgage rates scared off potential buyers by ChocolateTsar

It actually started to feel like free money was the natural state of the world for a decade or so there. Younger people (less than 35 or so), probably really don't have perspective on how national economies "normally" function without extreme measures like Quantitative Easing happening in the background. Stonks don't always go up.

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jason_steakums t1_iwwb2rd wrote

tbh I'm glad we seem to be easing into a more normal economy the way that we are, it could have been a real abrupt shitshow between post-covid and Brexit economic weirdness and Ukraine and all this other stuff hitting at the same time

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Rikey_Doodle t1_iwwb606 wrote

>Stonks don't always go up.

You're telling me all that stuff about infinite growth was all just lies? I refuse to believe it.

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thunder_struck85 t1_iwwdwa1 wrote

Why do people continue to call it free money? There's nothing free about it. You still borrowing an enormous sum that has to be paid back in full. No different than borrowing a mediocre sum at a higher rate.

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CrystalMenthol t1_iwwe7m0 wrote

They call it free because you borrowed it for almost free. It's like if I rented you a car for no money, you'd have no problem saying "I got this rental car for free!" You still have to give back the car / pay back the loan, but you got to use that car/money during the rental/loan period.

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thunder_struck85 t1_iwwk7mj wrote

But you still didn't borrow it for almost free. It's a stupid saying. Borrowing $1mil at 1% is still not free. That's still a lot of money in interest if you're buying an item that has no real return.... like a house you don't plan to flip but live in long term.

Nothing free about it.

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Ag0r t1_iwx96a9 wrote

If the loan's interest rate is lower than inflation, it is literally free. Many many Americans have mortgage rates lower than 3% which means the value of the debt is shrinking more then the debtor is charging for it.

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aladdyn2 t1_iwz1ym2 wrote

Yeah I'm 46 and got my first mortgage at 6.5% 15 years ago which was good at the time and my parents maybe 25-30 years before that started at 13% interest. Of course back then they could actually make and save money more easily so they weren't just borrowing 100% of the cost.

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