"John W." <worthj1970@yahoo.com> wrote in message news:<1113502201.652557.63200@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>...
> Ken Yasumoto-Nicolson wrote:
> >
> > Hopefully I find out on Monday that they are giving me a vast sum at
> > 1.25% fixed for three years, then 1% discount of base rates for the
> > remaining 32 years.
> >
> Does Japan not do fixed rates? 

They do. But not for those juicy 1.7% rates like we saw a couple of
years ago. You might find some at your own bank. My bank did not offer
any, just those crap 1, 3, 5 or 10 (IIRC) year variable rate loans,
with the probability I wouldn't be able to afford the interest later
when it goes up again.

http://www.goodloan.co.jp/ 

(part of Softbank Group, formerly billed as a Softbank Company) seems
to be offering a 35 year fixed rate loan at 2.29% interest.

> What if the rate happens to fall below 1%? Is there a limit they'll absolutely not go below?

Well, I think the lowest locally was 1.7% percent a couple years back,
and every time new ads for homes and loans came out, rates were the
"lowest in history". That's when bank accounts were paying maybe 0.1%,
so I doubt lending rates can go much below that.

> My sister in law keeps saying they can't afford to build their house
> (her husband has some family land out near Himeji), but my wife and I
> kept telling her that the interest rates were so low it's too good an
> opportunity to pass up. Of course, the commute from Himeji to Shiga
> (where hubby works) would be a bitch. I suggested they buy it and let
> me live there.

People who can buy now (or did so within the past couple of years) are
fortunate. I simply cannot believe what is happening in my hometown,
where the average home new or used is over $570,000 (up 40% in a
single year), one would be lucky to find a home under $400,000, and
loans go for 8%. I see online how half that can buy you a hundred acre
dairy in upstate New York, about the same size Victorian estate "bring
the horses" in Virginia or West Virginia, houses and estates with
names, a number of homes on the National Registry, or stunning views
in Oregon or Colorado, places I've been and wouldn't mind staying, and
want to kick myself.

Thanks to an influx of millionaires (not least of which is a certain
IT billionaire, a newcomer who considers himself a big time landowner
and developer) willing to pay a premium not to wait for two years to
have their own multimillion dollar homes built; I am told that to
build on one's own land can be $300,000, and builders expect it up
front. In my hometown newspaper yesterday, they describe an upcoming
$1.5 billion project (on an island with a total resident population of
just 65,000) where they expect "home lots to begin selling at $1
million, and condos at $700 per square foot". I remember the good old
days when I thought $20,000 homes in Hawaii or California were
outrageous.