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Bill Vourazeris 443-618-2880 Work with an expert!

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Current State of Mortgage financing.....What's going on?

 

Anyone watching or reading the financial news over the last few days and weeks has seen a lot of angst and consternation over the state of the mortgage industry. In fact, one of the larger lenders in the US, American Home Mortgage, was forced to shut down operations last week. But why? What is happening, and most importantly, what does all this mean to you? Let's unpack the definitions and details, so that you really understand the truth behind the headlines.
Over the past several years, many loans were made to homeowners with somewhat non-traditional or "non-conforming" situations, be it a poor credit history, inability to document income, or any number of factors that do not fit within the traditional "box" for home loans. These loans are often called "Sub-Prime", or "Alt-A", meaning that they were somewhat riskier in nature than A credit, prime, or traditional loans. Another type of "non-conforming" home loan is one where the credit and income might be perfectly fine, but the loan amount is higher than $417K, which is the current maximum loan that can be done using pools of money from mortgage giants Fannie Mae (FNMA) and Freddie Mac (FHLMC). If the loan amount is higher, it can certainly be done - it's called a "jumbo loan" - but the end money comes from private institutions, not from the large government sponsored entities of Fannie and Freddie.
Most non-conforming loan product rates popped significantly higher in the last week. Here's the scoop. The end investor for Subprime or Alt-A loans will charge a premium for taking on a pool of these loans, because they know that traditionally, they might have a higher rate of default and delinquent payments within that risky pool. But lately, default and foreclosure has been on the rise - partly due to the fact that with credit tightening and a soft real estate market, many troubled homeowners are unable to refinance or sell in order to get out of trouble. So now, these end institutions are demanding a much higher "risk premium" for taking on these pools of loans, as they see the rates of default are climbing higher.
But since these institutions are purchasing these pools of loans sometimes months after the borrower has actually closed at a given rate, this increase to the risk premium means that instead of paying $101K for a $100K loan that will bear interest, they may only be willing to pay $95K for that $100K mortgage to account for the risk. Multiply that times thousands upon thousands of loans...and you have millions upon millions of dollars in loss for the company trying to sell the pool at a much lower price than they were expecting. This is called a "liquidity crisis", and is exactly what happened to American Home Mortgage - there was no mismanagement, but they simply got caught holding too many "hot potato" loans, forced to sell them at massive losses...and eventually they had to make the decision to close the doors and stop the bleeding.
Further, even when a lender is able to take some losses, they may be subject to a "margin call". This means that as their losses and risk premiums increase, the value of their loan portfolio decreases. As the value decreases, the credit lines that are secured by those portfolios begin to issue margin calls as the value of the asset that they are secured on is now diminished. This is exactly like margin calls in the Stock market. If you have a loan against a Stock that is losing value, you will get a "margin call" and need to pay down the loan, as the underlying Stock is losing too much value to be considered adequate collateral any longer. So for the big lenders, as their portfolio is losing value due to increased risk premiums and losses...the margin calls start coming in, and they are required to pay down their balances. In turn, this means that they have less availability to fund their new loans, which then exacerbates the problem.
In response to seeing this situation play out in the demise of American Home Mortgage, lenders of other non-conforming loan products increased their interest rates dramatically almost overnight to be better prepared - and likely over-prepared - for increased risk premiums down the road. Even though loans above $417K are not presently suffering from increased delinquencies like the Subprime and Alt-A loans are, these rates popped higher as well, because they are being purchased by smaller private entities that can't afford to take on any margin of risk.
What happens next, and what should you do now? The present situation will likely settle out over the coming year, and the rates on products that have moved so significantly higher now should trend lower down the road as delinquency rates stabilize. But here are a few important things to do right now.
First, even if you are not presently in the market for a home or a home loan of any type, call me and I will put you with one of my many trusted Loan Consultants to make sure that your credit standing is as solid as possible. Many people I talk to about home loans didn't expect they would have a need, and didn't plan in advance to ensure their credit would qualify them for the best possible financing. With no immediate need for a home loan, time is on your side...why don't we take a few minutes together and just make sure you are prepared, should a need arise down the road?
Next, if you are in the market for a home loan, or know someone who is - know that now is time to be working with a real qualified professional who can keep you informed of changes in the market and get your loan funded quickly. Now is NOT the time to be playing the risky game of trying to scour the entire nation to find someone who promises to save you a paltry amount on costs, or deliver a rate that seems too good to be true. Your home and your financing are just too important, and times have changed. I am here to help and advise during these volatile times - and would welcome calls from you, your friends, family, neighbors or coworkers.
If you have any questions at all, please call or e-mail me or if you have clients that need to be approved give me a call I am here to help.


Bill Vourazeris
Vice-President
443-618-2880

FIXED RATE MORTGAGES

You are probably familiar with a fixed rate mortgage. Your parents more than likely had one, as did their parents before them. The major advantage of fixed rate mortgages is that they present predictable housing costs for the life of the loan. Some fixed rate mortgages you will probably hear about are:

• 30-Year Fixed Rate Mortgages
• 15-year Fixed Rate Mortgages
• Biweekly Mortgages
• "Convertible" Mortgages

ADJUSTABLE RATE MORTGAGES

Adjustable Rate Mortgages (ARMs) have become on of the most popular and effective tools for helping some prospective homebuyers achieve their dream of homeownership. Developed during a time of high interest rates that kept many people out of the housing market, the ARM offers lower initial rates by sharing the future risk of higher rates between borrower and lender.

ARMs can be an excellent choice of financing under certain conditions, such as rising income expectations, high interest rates, and short-term homeownership. But because payments and interest rates can increase, either steadily or irregularly, homebuyers considering this kind of mortgage need to have the income to keep up with all possible rate and/or payment changes. Each ARM has four basic components:

• Initial interest rate, which is typically one to three percentage points lower than that of most fixed rate mortgages. Lower interest rates also make ARMs somewhat easier to qualify for. The initial interest rate is tied to certain economic indicators that dictate in part what the monthly payments will be.
• Adjustment interval, at the time between changes in the interest rate and/or monthly payment will be.
• Index*, against which lenders measure the difference between what they are making on their investment in the mortgage and what they could be making on other types of investments.
• Margin, or the additional amount the lender adds to the index to establish the adjusted interest rate on an ARM. The margin is usually 1.5 percent to 2.5 percent.

FHA/VA MORTGAGES

The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and the Veterans Administration (VA) offer a wide range of mortgage choices that may appeal to you. These include 30 and 15 year fixed- rate mortgages, as well as ARMs. Insured by these government agencies, the loans feature low or no down payment terms and are often assumable by future purchasers. VA loans are restricted to individuals qualified by military service or other entitlements, but FHA - insured loans are open to all qualified home purchasers. Note that there are limits to handle moderate-priced homes anywhere in the country. Talk to your lender about FHA/VA possibilities. With FHA we offer a great down payment assistance program called Neamiah which helps you with up to 6% towards closing costs and down payment.

INTEREST ONLY MORTGAGES

The loan product commonly called 'Interest Only Mortgage' is an interest-only payment option which is offered on fixed rate (FRM) or adjustable rate (ARM) mortgages or on option ARMs. The option to pay 'interest-only' lets you pay only the interest portion of your monthly payment for a fixed period (three, five, seven or ten years). At the end of that period your loan becomes fully amortized, thus resulting in greatly increased monthly payments. Your new payment will be larger than it would have been if it had been fully amortizing from the beginning. The longer the interest only period, the larger the new payment will be when the interest only period ends.

Example

If a 30-year fixed rate loan of $350,000 at 7% has interest only payments for 5 years, the payment during the interest only period is $2,625.00. Starting in month 61, the payment is $3,180.51. The fully amortizing payment (the payment that, if maintained over the term of the loan, will pay it off completely) would be $2,993.86. So in order to reduce your payment by $368.86 for the first 5 years, you pay an additional $186.65 for the next 25 years.

Interest only payment plans are for borrowers who expect to earn a lot more in a few years and want to maximize their buying power now or who will invest the difference between an interest only and an amortizing mortgage payments, and who are confident that these investments will make money.

Advantages

+ During the interest only term your monthly payments are as low as they can possibly get;
+ You can qualify for a larger loan amount, maybe even a larger home;
+ During the interest only term you won't pay out cash to build equity;
+ Make investments with payment difference to potentially build your net worth;
+ The entire monthly payment qualifies as tax-deductible interest during the interest only period.