NEW YORK — When it comes to home mortgages, some people are thinking really long term by taking 40-year or 50-year loans.

The attraction is lower monthly payments, which make these mortgages more manageable for some families. The disadvantage is that consumers can end up paying much more interest over the life of the loan than they would with a traditional 30-year mortgage.

Only a handful of lenders write 40- to 50-year mortgages, but experts say others will follow if they prove popular with home buyers.

Among the consumers looking at a 50-year mortgage is self-employed graphic artist Larisa Meyer, 35, who is buying a home in Minneapolis.

Meyer said it's important to her to keep her monthly mortgage payment low because her income can be irregular. At the same time, she doesn't want an exotic mortgage, such as an interest-only loan, because she wants to build equity.

"A big part of selecting a 50-year mortgage is the payment size," Meyer said. "I also know that in a few years, I will have some equity. It won't be a ton, but there will be some."

Still, consumers should be forewarned that most of the longer-term mortgages do not have a fixed interest rate like many 30-year mortgages do.

The loan Meyer is considering carries an interest rate of 6.5 percent for the first five years, and then the rate can be adjusted annually, said Eric Pirius, a loan officer at River City Mortgage & Financial in Eagan, Minn. It also requires a "balloon payment" of the outstanding balance after 30 years, although the presumption is that most mortgage holders will have refinanced long before that.

"I haven't talked to a client yet who intends to hold a mortgage for 50 years," Pirius said. "But that low payment helps people qualify. It gets them into that home and getting the tax benefits of ownership."

Some housing experts are skeptical that the 40- to 50-year mortgages will be widely used.

Keith T. Gumbinger, vice president of HSH Associates, a mortgage information service based in Pompton Plains, N.J., said 40-year mortgages have come in and out of favor, last gaining some popularity in the mid-1980s when interest rates were so high many consumers didn't qualify for loans.

The major drawback of the longer-term mortgages, he believes, is that "equity builds extremely slowly" so that there's little advantage compared with interest-only loans.