A few months back, ING sent me a direct mail piece advertising their Easy Orange Mortgage.

ING’s Easy Mortgage is an Adjustable Rate Mortgage, or ARM, though they go to great lengths to never use the term “ARM” in their promotional pieces.

Looks like they’re at it again.

I received yet another advert pushing their 5/1 ARM.

Again, I can’t help but imagine the desperate people who will lose their houses to ING in 5 years because they feel they have no choice but to take advantage of this offer.

Again, for 99% of people out there, this is NOT a good deal. When these mortgages adjust in 5 years, it will be to a higher rate, probably a much higher rate.

I can only hope that their continued advertising of the program is a sign that it’s had a poor response rate thus far. Unfortunately, the opposite is probably true – people are probably signing up for this offer without realizing the trouble they’re getting themselves in to.

The U.S. housing bubble will take years to work itself out, and offers that skirt the edge of common sense (like this one) will only prolong it.