The city will then match the bank's 45 percent loan.

A new 8 percent loan, which is the current conventional mortgage rate, would cost $917 a month.

On the other hand, a 5.57 percent loan, the current rate for the pension mortgage program, would cost $715.

The average city subsidy per apartment has been $36,000, usually in the form of a 1 percent loan.

For now, however, 125 percent loans appear to have struck a chord.

The interest paid on the 7.25 percent loan over a 30-year period, of course, would be less - $145,580.

With a 125 percent loan, the homeowner can borrow another $100,000, resulting in total debt of $250,000.

One way, for example, would be to dispense with any amortization of the city's large 1 percent loans.

That compares to $550 payments on a 1.9 percent loan.

The annual mortgage-interest subsidy comes to about $4,000 a year per family on a 1 percent loan of $43,000.