Originally published May 17th, 2022:
Buying a home with a mortgage is common practice in the United States (setting aside the recent trend of all-cash buyers willing to pay well above listing prices…)
And in most of northern and western Europe, the story is the same. However, there is a clear geographic pattern to the presence of mortgage lending in Europe, which we illustrate here. Darker shaded countries have higher percentages of owned homes with mortgages, and lighter shaded ones have lower percentages.
Any thoughts on why this might be? Let us know in the comments.