Offer 90-year mortgages to help

Published 3:00 pm Wednesday, August 6, 2014

As Mr. Davis noted in his Wednesday column “The jobs youth need are taken,” we have a serious problem with unemployment. The effects of the Great Recession will be felt for decades to come — imagine what’s going to happen to businesses that rely on given age groups for support when the poor youth of today become poor adults and poor elders, never catching up to where they should be.

We need to do something about this — and so I offer this challenge to the entire banking industry:

Start offering 90-year mortgages, with longer terms if necessary. You will receive an excellent return over time because of the interest rates, and we know that mortgages of this length can be done successfully. Your goal is to significantly reduce the cost of living by making it so that even people at lower wages (including part-time workers) can afford to own a decent house and still have money left over for other things.

If we free up several hundred dollars a month for families within the state, we can expect to see that money spent on other things — giving businesses the money they need to start hiring again, providing funding for education, and generally strengthening our entire economy.

This won’t solve every problem we have, but it will be a good start. At the very least, don’t you think it’s worth considering?

James Eder

Everett