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 residents at Alterlaa, a housing complex in Vienna, have large concrete planters in which plants can be grown?
• ... that the Bluey special "The Sign" reminded a Sydney Morning Herald reporter of Australia's housing crisis?
• ... that Olympic sport shooter Ada Korkhin practiced in her family's apartment, shooting from the kitchen through the living and dining rooms?
• ... that you can see the sea from every apartment in Arlington House, Margate?
• ... that the building housing the city council of Palembang, Indonesia, was claimed to be the "grandest" of its kind?
• ... that William Aitken, William J. Bain, J. Lister Holmes, John T. Jacobsen, and George W. Stoddard collaborated in the early 1940s to design America's first racially integrated public housing development?
• ... that a 1905 steam-powered pump was assembled on-site in Virginia with its housing constructed around it?
• ... that a former radio host got a free apartment in New York City's King Manor and lived there for more than three decades?

• WikiProject Home Living

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• WikiProject Housing and Tenant Rights