Just a crazy piece by Patricia Kowsmann over at The Wall Street Journal. Covid-19 pushed benchmarks deeper into negative territory which widened the pool of mortgage holders who receive interest (WSJ)
Paula Cristina Santos has a dream mortgage: The bank pays her...Her interest rate fluctuates, but right now it is around minus 0.25%. So every month, Ms. Santos’s lender, Banco BPI SA, deposits in her account interest on the 320,000-euro mortgage, equivalent to roughly $380,000, she took out in 2008. In March, she received around $45. She is still paying principal on the loan.
Kowsmann notes that when the central bank went negative customers like Ms. Santos were supposed to be rare. In fact, economies in the eurozone began improving and expectations were that rates would rise in a few years. But then Covid hit…
As economic pain in Europe drags on, the negative rates remain—and they are getting lower. As a result, more borrowers in Portugal as well as in Denmark, where interest rates turned negative in 2012, are finding themselves in the unusual position of receiving interest on their loans.
With borrowers getting paid to buy homes , its a good time for Jerry to find a place in Tuscany
