REBUTTAL: California interest rates wrong

R.H. Duffield’s “My Turn” (June 29) is in great error by stating, without proof, that “In California, virtually all California mortgages are ‘interest-only loans.’”

The California Association of Realtors website cites 2018 research on first-time buyers that in 2006, the housing mortgage debacle year, 38.1% had ARM mortgages. These are interest-only loans, which the website states currently are accessed almost exclusively by very high-income borrowers, and with typically short terms of five years, not the 30 years Duffield alleges. In 2018, this rate was a whopping 4% of first-time buyers! Hardly a “majority.” Duffield needs to retract.

HARRIS KIGHT-MOORE

(visiting relatives)

IDYLLWILD, Calif.