Don's observations: part drei

A few more items-

Mortgages: You can get a 30 year mortgage here, that’s not the issue. It’s the interest rate. There are various options on the interest rate over a much shorter length of time. Specifically the longest term you can lock an interest rate for is 5 years. So every 5 years you need to select another interest rate option based on the rates at the time. I’m not sure I like this one bit – it’s like being forced to refi every few years.

Mail delivery: While the rural delivery is done by car, the in town delivery is done by bike (maybe a job for me?). I noticed this in both large (Auckland) and small cities.

Power: The company that supplies our power produces electricity exclusively from renewable resources (wind or water). Ours specifically comes from a hydro generation unit about 60 miles from us. They also operate the largest wind farm in the Southern Hemisphere. Cool.

Financing: They do have the typical financing offers here (i.e. 1 year same as cash, no interest for 18 months, etc) like in the States but the main difference is you need to also pay an establishment fee to participate. This fee is typically between $35 and $50. Forget it. Guess the days of utilizing this type of promotion and borrowing on another’s dime are gone, oh well.

Tea: as Angela and I just learned, being invited for tea in the evening is actually an invite to dinner. more on this in another post.