sigismundtn33

Since historic stock returns are greater than after-tax mortgage rates, why ever pay principal on a mortgage?

Perhaps risk-averse investors might want to pay off their mortgage. However, shouldn't young investors (who can tolerate some risk) avoid paying down principal on their mortgage?

Shouldn't young investors take an interest-only mortgage and put all their savings into the stock market?

If so, why does everyone seem to believe that building home equity is a good thing? Building home equity seems like a bad idea to me because paid off principal earns no return and also you lose some mortgage-interest tax deduction.

The Obama administration's mortgage plan invites lenders to modify the mortgages of homeowners, which process can be described as several mortgage-modification-steps.