35 Year Mortgage Loan Sweet At First With Bitter Aftertaste

California´s affordable housing bank is throwing a new life raft to residents struggling to buy their first homes.

That´s a fixed-rate 35-year loan, an alternative to the mortgage industry´s conventional 30-year loan. It offers buyers interest-only payments the first five years. State housing officials acknowledge it´s more costly to buyers in the long run. But they´re aiming it at people who can´t initially afford a full payment, and fear waiting until the state´s housing market rises still higher.