Cultural Differences for Mortgages

It’s very interesting to look at some financial norms or habits in different cultures around the world. I recently ran across this:

“Terms of mortgages are an interesting area of cross-cultural differences in financial services. The typical mortgage in the United States is for 30 years, whereas in Canada mortgages are issued for five years, with repeated refinancing every five years. In Mexico, most people pay cash for houses because mortgages are virtually unavailable. And in Japan 100-year mortgages are quite common and often pass along with the house or flat to the next generation.” (Zeithaml, Bitner, Gremler, 2006)

100-year mortgages?! The mortgage would outlive you and me! Even in so-called industrialized countries, the differences in mortgage terms is very different. Just thought I’d share some random facts from around the world.