Home Debtor

A “home debtor” is anyone who owes money on a home loan. Since only about a third of U.S. homeowners own those homes free and clear—that is, they either bought the house outright or have paid off their mortgage in full—the other two-thirds of the homeowning population are home debtors.

That being said, sometimes the term “home debtor” is used specifically to describe someone who’s probably never going to be able to pay off their mortgage. Maybe we’re underwater on our house, or maybe we’ve remortgaged and don’t have a lot of equity. It doesn’t necessarily mean we’ve done anything wrong; it just means we’re probably not going to be paying off our mortgage anytime soon.