Many of us remember the episode of The Office in which Michael Scott plans to purchase a new house. He excitedly gives Dwight a tour and fantasizes about his future there, until he realizes that the mortgage contract he is about to sign has a 30-year term. Michael immediately panics and starts finding issues with the house.
What Michael’s real estate agent fails to explain is that the vast majority of home buyers don’t keep the same 30-year mortgage from start to finish. In fact, the average 30-year loan only lasts around 7–12 years, since people move and sell their homes, refinance with a new mortgage or pay it off early.
So why don’t mortgages have 7-12 year terms? Because most people can’t afford them.
The 30-year mortgage was created during the New Deal to replace much shorter, unaffordable loans that most buyers couldn’t sustain. It expanded access to homeownership at a time when the major barrier was the structure of mortgages themselves.
The 50-year mortgage idea recently floated by the Trump administration grows out of the same motivation of the 30-year mortgage of the 1930s—to make home ownership more accessible to people who would otherwise be renters.
But today, the main barrier is not how we finance homes—it’s that we don’t build enough of them.
We explain how Georgia could fix this problem in this week’s commentary.
– Kyle Wingfield
Friday’s Freshest 🗞️
If you’ve followed the conversation even casually, you’ve heard the claim: Large institutional investors are buying up homes, driving prices sky-high and locking families out of the market. But like most stories that sound that simple, this one has more layers. And it’s worth separating the easy headlines from what’s actually happening on the ground.
Despite the federal public health emergency ending over two years ago, ‘temporary’ Affordable Care Act subsidies that removed the income cap have remained in place. They have become the source of political theater in Washington, even though the expiring subsidies are not the driving force behind rising premiums.
Here is a simple proposition: If a Georgia public school has an open seat, any Georgia student should be able to take it. This idea isn’t fringe or partisan and shouldn’t require a superintendent’s blessing.
Atlanta is in the middle of consolidating and reorganizing schools, with tens of thousands of open seats across the district. Still, consolidation is rarely easy, even when it’s the practical or financially sound thing to do.
Georgia has made progress in recent years on lowering its income tax rate. The current 5.19% flat tax rate is scheduled to be lowered to 4.99% using revenue triggers. In order to become even more economically competitive in the region and to allow taxpayers to keep more of their hard-earned income, policymakers must not become complacent.
Peach Picks 🍑
Georgia’s income tax rate is just over 5%, but some lawmakers want to take it to zero. State senators met this week to discuss how that could happen, launching a debate that has quickly drawn interest from business owners and families.
With home costs rising beyond the reach of many Georgians, builders and developers are pushing for new limits on local control over construction permitting. State lawmakers heard Tuesday about legislation that would impose strict deadlines on local governments to issue permits.
Gov. Kemp announced that Salesforce, Inc. will invest $15 million to expand its Georgia presence, creating over 250 new jobs in Fulton County by the end of 2028. The company currently supports over 2,000 jobs across Georgia and serves customers in financial services, healthcare, retail, manufacturing, logistics and the public sector.
Georgia Insurance Commissioner John King said Wednesday he approved a rate filing from State Farm that would decrease the carrier’s automobile insurance rates by 3%. The reduction means State Farm customers have seen an average 10% drop in their rates over the past year, King said in a release.
Georgia once again receives an F in preterm birth report. Preterm babies — born before 37 weeks of pregnancy — may not be fully developed at birth, leading to more health problems. The report underscores persistent gaps in equity, access and maternal care.
Quotes Of Note 🌟
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” – Maya Angelou
“Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.” – Neil Gaiman
“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” – Thomas A. Edison
One More Fact 💡
The federal government ran a budget deficit of $1.8 trillion last year, meaning Washington spent far more than it collected in revenue. That gap doesn’t simply disappear; it gets added to the national debt, which has now grown so large that interest payments alone are one of the fastest-rising items in the federal budget.
What this means in practice is that more of every tax dollar is going toward yesterday’s spending instead of today’s priorities—whether that’s infrastructure, education, public safety or tax relief. High deficits also reduce the flexibility policymakers will have when the next recession hits or when an unexpected crisis requires swift action.
The big picture is simple: Just as families and states must live within reality, the federal government eventually faces the same math. Fiscal challenges can be solved, but only if we’re honest about their size and serious about reforms that strengthen long-term stability rather than relying on temporary fixes.