> nagoholic wrote:
> > The wifey and I will be going to the bank tomorrow, to do the
> > paperwork for  the loan for our new home. Anybody out there have
> > experience with this?

We got ours for the 1.9% range. Fixed for five years, then variable.

The problem with fixed rates in Japan is that they are very expensive. The
rate they wanted for a 20-year fixed-rate home loan was higher than Japan's
variable rate has been in 30 years. And that's through the real-estate
bubble.

When we did our loan, they were very helpful about how much the interest was
going to cost. They prepared several interest-rate and term scenarios, and
showed the various outcomes. Then when we asked about a couple more, they
went and plugged them into their computer and printed those out for us as
well. I turned out that by taking a 20-year rather than 30-year loan, we
could save 3 million yen under reasonable assumptions about interest rates.

I know a lot of people recommend stretching out the loan because the
interest is so low, but I figure I'm young enough to actually get another
home loan after this one is paid off -- for a 20-year loan that is, not 30.

"etaka" <etaka@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1117579303.285528.217990@g44g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> Congratulations. I should have bought a house in Japan two years ago,
> when rates were maybe 1.7%, and there were good homes on the market for
> amazingly low prices.

Does that mean you've bought one now?

-- 
Regards,
Ryan Ginstrom
ryang@gol.com