Best Mortgage

According to the latest news, ACORN (the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now), has just issued the results of the impact of upcoming adjustments to adjustable rate mortgages. To refresh your memory, ACORN is the nation’s largest community organization which deals with low and moderate-income families. Their study used a sample of 275 subsidiary lenders owned by 15 of the largest lenders in the country. These lenders represent 65.5% of all residential mortgages that were originated in 2005 and 55% of the sub-prime market. Each of the lenders was asked to provide the public version of data they collected as mandated by the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) which includes information on the race, gender, and census tract of each applicant and whether the applicants received high-cost loans. The study examined only first conventional purchase and refinance mortgages; no government guaranteed (i.e. VA or FHA) loans. 130 metropolitan areas were examined to determine the disparities between borrowers of different race and income levels to identify those areas and groups that may pose the greatest risk of “rate shock.” ACORN noted that, while ARMs represent about 24% of all home loans nationally, in some communities and among some demographic groups they account for a much larger percentage of the mortgage pool. ARMS also make up about 75% of all sub-prime loans - a 50% increase since 1999. The report stated that “until this year there has been little recognition of the prevalence of adjustable interest rates in sub-prime loans and the danger posed by these ARMS.” The focus instead has been on predatory practices such as excessive fees, high interest rates, and balloon payments. Sub-prime loans are generally tailored for a market where people cannot obtain a conventional loan at a standard rate but Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae have estimated that at least 1/3 of sub-prime borrowers could actually have qualified for a lower cost mortgage so, it would seem that a “large number of the borrowers who have received ARMS should not have been in the sub-prime market.” The ACORN study found 32 markets where at least one out of three loans given out was high cost and thus subject to rate reset shock. In ten of these markets high cost loans represented 2/5 of the home purchase and refinance mortgages. The ten were Detroit, Michigan, Memphis, Tennessee, Jackson, Mississippi, McAllen, El Paso, Laredo, Brownsville, Texas, Springfield, Illinois, Birmingham and Alabama.
ACORN also found that minority neighborhoods are at a great risk of payment shock because of the extent of high cost loans. More than half of the high-cost refinance loans in 67 of the areas examined in the study were in minority communities and in 44 of these areas over 50% of the purchase loans were high cost. And the risk was not limited to the low income in minority areas. Upper-income minority borrowers were found to be at greater risk than white borrowers of similar income. In 12 metropolitan areas upper-income African-Americans were at least three times more likely than their white counterparts to receive high-cost refinance loans and in 15 metropolitan areas upper-income African-Americans were at least five times more likely to receive a high-cost purchase loan than upper-income whites. These areas are mostly southern or east coast (Atlanta, Baltimore, Charleston, Durham, Jackson, NYC, Washington, DC, plus Milwaukee and San Francisco). Interest rates for sub-prime ARMs are usually tied to the London Inter-Bank Offer Rate (LIBOR) with a margin of about 5.5% added on. The LIBOR has increased from 1.21% in January 2004 to 5.64% in June 2006. While many ARMs have rate caps that limit the amount that a rate can adjust on each anniversary and over the life of the loan, many sub-prime loans do not - or else have caps that allow very large increases. Even a typical 2% cap on a $150,000 loan would allow an increase in the monthly payment of $212.
Another survey, performed by Public Opinion Strategies, found that lower-income people did not think that traditional mortgages were an option for them and we also less informed about reset shock and the debt risks. Borrowers with prepayment penalties and minimum equity may be unable to refinance out of a loan that, once it readjusts, they can no longer afford. The First American Real Estate Solutions research notes that approximately 1 million households are in danger of losing their homes through foreclosure aver the next five years because they will not be able to afford new payment levels and will owe more on their homes than they can recoup through a sale or refinance. The ACORN report shows that the impact of rate reset shock may be concentrated in certain metropolitan areas and among certain demographic groups that can eventually cut the prices down.

Lending experts are fifty-fifty on 50-year mortgages: some of them say as it can be risky, others say it’s good. Many men, many mind. Nevertheless, Statewide Bancorp in California is the first U.S. lender to introduce a 50-year mortgage. It means that a mortgage has been supersized. Half of first-time home buyers are 32 or older, according to the National Association of Realtors. If those buyers get 50-year mortgages and never refinance or make extra payments, they won’t pay off their loans until they’re in their 80s. Would they be crazy to get loans that amortize or pay off the balance over 50 years instead of the standard 30 years? No way. Getting a 50-year loan is a perfectly rational way to avoid an interest-only or payment-option adjustable-rate mortgage.  Such loans only make up a small fraction of the market as you are not building wealth through homeownership with a 50-year mortgage. Although lenders offer 50-year loans, almost every company has variations: some have a straight 50-year mortgage, some have a balloon payment and some have adjustments. The customer is probably going to be charged a higher interest rate to have the privilege of paying 20 years more interest. Basically, a 50-year mortgage is the program of last resort and borrowers should remember that there will be a day of reckoning and maybe a bad day of reckoning.

Most 50-year loans are actually adjustable 30-year loans that are based on a 50-year repayment schedule. They are called “50s due in 30.” If carried to term, the loans have balloon payments due in 30 years. Some lenders offer adjustable home loans that can be repaid over 50 years. Because it is adjustable, the fully amortized 50-year loan is definitely profitable. Some buyers simply like the idea of having five decades to repay their loan.
As for taxes and insurance, the 50-year loan would begin with a monthly payment of $3,674 compared to $3,826 for the traditional loan. After 30 years, borrowers with the traditional loan would own their homes free and clear. Those with a “50 due in 30” would face a balloon payment of $388,036.  It’s expected that half-century mortgages will rapidly gain popularity. The advantage of a 50-year mortgage is that there is a lot of sizzle, but not much steak.