Woman, 92, given 30-year home loan SYDNEY, Australia (Reuters) --A 92-year-old Australian woman has become the nation's oldest first-time home buyer after securing a housing loan she does not have to pay off for another 30 years. Her local financial institution is banking on the mother-of-five living to 122 under the terms of the loan. Margaret Cole, who grew up in a poor coal-mining town in Wales, Britain, decided concerns among the nation's traditionally risk averse banks about her age would not stop her embracing the "great Australian dream" of home ownership. "She has been a battler all her life and was not taking no for an answer," James Hunt, her real estate agent at First National Wyong, told Reuters on Monday. She also bagged a A$7,000 ($3,850 USD) grant from the government for first-time homebuyers, an incentive normally aimed at the young. Cole, who emigrated to Australia in 1976, has had a little help from her daughter and brother-in-law, whose names are also on the ANZ Bank mortgage as co-guarantors. She plans to move into her A$198,000 ($107,000 USD) three-bedroom home at Watanobbi, a suburb north of Sydney on the New South Wales central coast, later this week. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 2002 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Find this article at: http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/asiapcf/09/24/offbeat.australia.loan.reut/index.html
I heard this story on the news. I was wondering how she got this mortgage. Younger co-signers! Now they have 3 people securing the loan. Older people are always considered better credit risk. humblemarc
At least in the States, you cannot deny somone a mortgage due to their age. My dad is 74 and just got his first mortgage.
