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What Happens to Fixed Rate Mortgage Loans During Hyperinflation?

Personal Finance & Money Asked by Eric Warburton on June 23, 2021

What happens to fixed rate loans like most mortgages in situations where the currencies experience hyperinflation like the German Marks or Zimbabwean Dollar? In this article it states that fixed rate loans will stay the same. Is there anything that loaners can do to minimize the lost value, or do they just simply eat the lost value from these transactions while the loanee massively profits?

One Answer

That's the risk the holder of the mortgage takes on when it agrees to a fixed rate loan. If inflation is lower than expected, the fixed rate mortgage is relatively more valuable. If inflation is higher than expected, the fixed rate mortgage is relatively less valuable.

For the most part, mortgage lenders in the US, EU, etc. do not hold the mortgage for very long. They generally sell the mortgage off either to the government (in the US, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, etc.) or to investors in the form of mortgage pools (you may have seen reporting on things like CDOs-- collateralized debt obligations-- in stories on the 2008 meltdown). At that point, the lender is insulated from the risk that hyperinflation makes the loans much less valuable and that risk is held by whoever acquired the mortgage.

Correct answer by Justin Cave on June 23, 2021

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