German Thrift Damps Lending as Cheap Money Is Distrusted

With a full-time job, no debt and a big savings account, Claudia Kuekelheim could have afforded a lot more house. Instead, the German office manager and her engineer husband used their credit to get a mortgage with predictable monthly installments they could pay more quickly.

“We probably could have gotten a 100 percent mortgage, but we want the house to be paid off before we retire,” said Kuekelheim, 42, who paid 24 percent up front and chose a higher interest rate because it’s fixed for 20 years. “We were worried that rates would end up being too high for us if we only fixed it for 10 years.”