No, NY Times, Climate Change Will Not End the 30-Year Mortgage

The New York Times is asserting a doozy of a fake climate claim today, scaring readers into believing they will no longer be able to get home mortgages because of climate change. The assertion is preposterous. Let’s break it down:

This morning, the Times published an article titled, “Rising Seas Threaten an American Institution: The 30-Year Mortgage.” The subtitle reads, “Climate change is starting to transform the classic home loan, a fixture of the American experience and financial system that dates back generations.”

The reasoning, according to the Times, is “More banks are getting buyers in coastal areas to make bigger down payments — often as much as 40 percent of the purchase price, up from the traditional 20 percent — a sign that lenders have awakened to climate dangers and want to put less of their own money at risk.”

So, allegedly, for the less-than-one-percent of the American population that is rich enough and privileged enough to build or buy an oceanfront house, banks are asking for a larger down payment due to obvious coastal flooding risks. According to the Times, we are supposed to cry for the One-Percenters who are asked to put more money down on their oceanfront home mortgages. Well, boo hoo hoo, that is simply banks executing responsible lending practices for people living on the water, with or without climate change.

Worse, however, is the way the Times completely misrepresents the situation in the title and subtitle of its article. Rising seas are not “threatening an American institution: the 30-year mortgage.” The 30-year mortgage will remain the standard for the 99.9 percent of the population that is not seeking to get loans for an oceanfront home.

The Times has deliberately published an article with a misleading, overly alarmist title and subtitle to induce people who scan the titles of news articles to fear without reason that climate change will keep them from getting a home mortgage. Climate change or no climate change, only a tiny, extremely wealthy percentage of the population may be asked to put more money upfront for oceanfront homes. 99.9 percent of the population have nothing to worry about at all regarding the future of 30-year mortgages.

This is what happens when “news” organizations determine that it is their moral responsibility to lie and mislead people to promote a certain point of view regarding a dubious climate crisis. Truth is twisted, misrepresented, or completely thrown out the window.

The truth is, there is no threat to the “fixture of the American experience and financial system that dates back generations.” 30-year home mortgages aren’t going anywhere. And make sure that climate alarmists like the New York Times are held accountable for lying and promoting such preposterous scares.