A 30-Year Trap: The Problem With America's Weird Mortgages

``Only the United States has such an extreme system of winners and losers, in which new buyers face borrowing costs of 7.5 percent or more while two-thirds of existing mortgage holders pay less than 4 percent. On a $400,000 home, that's a difference of $1,000 in monthly housing costs... It isn't just that new buyers face higher interest rates than existing owners. It's that the U.S. mortgage system is discouraging existing owners from putting their homes on the market -- because if they move to another house, they'll have to give up their low interest rates and get a much costlier mortgage. Many are choosing to stay put, deciding they can live without the extra bedroom or put up with the long commute a little while longer.''