mortgage
noun /ˈmɔːɡɪdʒ/
/ˈmɔːrɡɪdʒ/
(also informal home loan)
- a legal agreement by which a bank or similar organization lends you money to buy a house, etc., and you pay the money back over a particular number of years; the sum of money that you borrow
- to apply for/take out/pay off a mortgage
- mortgage rates (= of interest)
- He raised the money by taking out a second mortgage on his house.
- a mortgage of £60 000
- He's been having trouble keeping up with his monthly mortgage repayments.
Collocations Moving houseMoving house Renting- live in a rented/(especially North American English) rental property
- rent/share/move into a furnished house/(British English) flat/(especially North American English) apartment
- rent a studio/(British English) a studio flat/(especially North American English) a studio apartment/(British English) a bedsit
- find/get a housemate/(British English) a flatmate/(North American English) a roommate
- sign/break the lease/rental agreement/contract
- extend/renew/terminate the lease/(British English) tenancy
- afford/pay the rent/the bills/(North American English) the utilities
- (especially British English) fall behind with/ (especially North American English) fall behind on the rent
- pay/lose/return a damage deposit/(North American English) security deposit
- give/receive a month’s/two-weeks’ notice to leave/vacate the property
- have a flat/an apartment/a room (British English) to let/(especially North American English) for rent
- rent (out)/lease (out)/ (British English) let (out)/sublet a flat/an apartment/a house/a property
- collect/increase/raise the rent
- evict the existing tenants
- attract/find new/prospective tenants
- invest in rental property/(British English) property to let/(British English) the buy-to-let market
- buy/acquire/purchase a house/(a) property/(especially North American English) (a piece of) prime real estate
- call/contact/use (British English) an estate agent/(North American English) a Realtor™/(North American English) a real estate agent/broker
- make/ (British English) put in an offer on a house
- put down/save for (British English) a deposit on a house
- make/put/save for (especially North American English) a down payment on a house/home
- apply for/arrange/take out a mortgage/home loan
- (struggle to) pay the mortgage
- make/meet/keep up/cover the monthly mortgage payments/(British English also) repayments
- (British English) repossess/ (especially North American English) foreclose on somebody’s home/house
- put your house/property on the market/up for sale/up for auction
- increase/lower your price/the asking price
- have/hold/hand over the deed/(especially British English) deeds of/to the house, land, etc.
Wordfinder- accommodation
- deed
- home
- house
- lease
- let
- location
- mortgage
- squat
- tenant
Wordfindersee also endowment mortgage, repayment mortgage- credit
- debt
- deposit
- interest
- lend
- loan
- money
- mortgage
- overdraft
- risk
Culture mortgagesmortgagesHouses are expensive to buy and few people have enough money of their own. Most people have to take out a mortgage, a type of loan. In Britain people usually get a mortgage from a bank or a building society; in the US they get one from a bank, a savings and loan association or a credit union. People put down a deposit (= pay a percentage of the price of the property) and borrow the rest. Mortgages are paid back in payments every month over a period of years. The person borrowing the money has to pay interest on the loan, so that the final amount paid is a lot more than the amount of the loan itself. The security (= guarantee that the lender will get their money back) is the house itself. If a borrower fails to keep up payments, the house may be repossessed by the lender and sold so that they can get their money back. This is called foreclosure. The financial crisis in the years following 2008 was partly caused by too much money being lent in mortgages to people who could not afford to pay it back. These mortgages were known as sub-prime mortgages.There are different types of mortgages. With a fixed-rate mortgage, the amount of interest remains at a particular level and the payments do not change. This type of mortgage is more popular in the US than Britain, where variable -rate mortgages (NAmE usually adjustable -rate mortgages) are more common. With a variable-rate mortgage, the rate of interest can increase or decrease depending on the state of the economy. In Britain some people have an endowment mortgage. This involves the borrower paying only interest on the loan to the bank or building society. They also pay for an endowment policy, a type of insurance policy which is supposed to provide enough money to pay back the loan. Many people with endowment mortgages have suffered because the growth of the policy was not enough to pay back the loan. For this reason they are no longer sold.For many people, paying back a mortgage is their greatest financial burden. People talk of being ‘ mortgaged up to the hilt ’, meaning that their mortgage payments leave them with little money for anything else. It is possible to take out a second mortgage on a house. Another practice, called remortgaging (NAmE refinancing) involves changing an existing mortgage to a different type offered by the lender or replacing it with a mortgage from another lender, usually in order to obtain a lower rate of interest.House prices sometimes rise very fast and then fall again. Some people who buy a house when prices are high can become victims of negative equity. Equity means the part of the value of a house that the buyer owns, and negative equity means a situation in which the value of a house falls below the amount borrowed as a mortgage. This makes it impossible to sell the house without being left with debt.Extra ExamplesTopics Moneyb2, Houses and homesb2- He didn't earn enough to support his family and pay the mortgage.
- He wasn't earning enough to pay the mortgage.
- I couldn't get a mortgage on the property.
- There are penalties if you want to redeem your mortgage early.
- They fell behind with/on their mortgage, so their home was repossessed.
- They were having trouble getting a mortgage.
- They were struggling to keep up with their mortgage payments.
- We have a big mortgage.
- We'll have to take out a second mortgage to pay for this holiday!
- We've got a big mortgage.
- a rise in mortgage rates
- mortgage interest payments
- Fortunately we've already paid off our mortgage.
- Mortgage rates are up again this month.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- big
- huge
- small
- …
- have
- hold
- buy
- …
- payment
- repayment
- application
- …
- mortgage of
- mortgage on
Word Originlate Middle English: from Old French, literally ‘dead pledge’, from mort (from Latin mortuus ‘dead’) + gage ‘pledge’.