4 ms·

Can't you get fixed-rate mortgages in Sweden?

• pathy 13y ago
  Usually you can fix at anywhere form 3 months to ten years. Currently SBAB (one of banks) offers 3month list rate at 2.9% and 10 year at 4.47%. Though that 10 year fixed rate right now would be quite insane. Most likely not going to be a good choice all things considered.
• marvin 13y ago
  In contrast to the US, mortgages in Scandinavia are rarely fixed-rate. The default is to get a mortgage with variable interest rate. The central bank publishes the "expected" central bank rate months in advance, just like in the US. As pathy said, you can usually change your variable-interest loan into a fixed-rate loan for 3, 5 or 10 years at a time. Few people do this, because you can expect to pay more over the lifetime of the loan, as insurance. Although the percentage has been higher now, since long-term rates were at record low levels in 2011-2013. The big killer of homeowners is unemployment, not climbing interest rates. In Norway, you regardless can't get a loan unless you are currently able to maintain a mortgage of 5 percentage points higher interest rate than the current variable rate. So the system is quite safe.
  • Wingman4l7 13y ago
    > you regardless can't get a loan unless you are currently able to maintain a mortgage of 5 percentage points higher interest rate than the current variable rate Clever! Doubtless this prevents issues like what the US faced in the sub-prime mortgage fiasco.