Why are there so many home foreclosures?
Question:
Thanks!
Answer:
Adjustable rate mortgages are a big contributor. These loans start out with a seemlingly low payment, but your monthly payment changes month to month, sometimes by thousands of dollars. Lots of mortgage companies have approved these types of mortgages to lower-income people to get them into a house, with the homebuyers not realizing what they were getting into. Also, in the hot market areas, (california, florida, etc which are feeling the foreclosures the most) many people have been joining in on the fad of flipping houses, and our left with multiple properties on their's hands that they purchased for more money than what they would get on the market today. Various other reasons account for foreclosures, but right now those are two of the major reasons why.
You have named two of the major problems, overspending is the main one,credit card purchases are so easy to make and so difficult to pay down, I suspect that is the killer.
Mom and dad both work, so they qualify for the mortgage,then they buy new or newer cars, and put curtains and furniture in the house..all of the above are on credit.
Then they have a couple of kids. Dancing class, football practice, and equipment, all cost money. The budget is stretched, day care, the price of gasoline goes up, a gallon of milk is up to 3.00 or more.no money at the end of the month. The new house has no shade, so the electric bill is higher..really no money now.what do we do? Can't sell the house ---every one else is in the same boat.call the bank, can't get a new loan. so we go into foreclosure...What about the INTEREST only loans in California, stupid people.
Many people also tend to buy more house than they can really afford. Their monthly mortage payment stretches their budgets to the max, and doesn't allow for any unexpected expeditures, such as car breakdowns, insurance deductibles, illnesses, or even temporary layoffs.
OK...a few years ago, when interest rates were really low and people wanted to refinance existing homes or take out home equity loans, homes were appraised highly. Now interest rates are high and when homes are appraised low. So lets say your house appraised at $185,000 a few years ago and so you took out an ARM mortgage to take advantage of those rock bottom rates. So today you owe $180,000 on your house and you want to move because your payment is going to jump $500/month because the rate is adjusting. But now if you have your house appraised it will have depriciated in value to $150,000 and you owe more than what your house is worth.
Well, you can't sell your house becasue you aren't going to find a buyer who can finance more than what the home is worth. You can't short sell beause banks rarely let people do that. You can't afford those outrageous mortgage payments, so you wind up getting behind on your payments and you lose your home.
To make matters worse you still owe the bank for the deficiancy balance between what you owed and what the bank got for your house!
It isn't always about the type of mortgage, my house has a 30 year fixed, but it is still worth less than what I purchased it for, so it isn't selling. Thankfully because it is fixed rate I do not have to worry about the payment changing. With the economy this bad, and homes not selling because they are worth less than what they were purchased for it is going to take a while for this slump to rebound.
The main reason it because banks are "Greedy". It's a sad world when someone buys a $150,000 house and pays $1400 a month for 30 years to pay for it. Do the math and you will be shocked. $16,800 a year, $168,000 in 10 years, a staggering $504,000 in 30 years. That is over half a million dollars "out of pocket money" for a $150,000 loan. ARM is the worst mortgage to get when you have a fluctuating economy and an uncertain stock market situation. It sounds good in the beginning but it can kill you in the end. A low interest fixed mortgage is the way to go if you can get a something within your budget. People are getting filthy rich while others are becoming homeless. Banks are owned by the rich and they are the slime of America.
Everyone is pointing the fingers at something. But in reality it is a combination of things. The reason people don't pay thier mortgages is for lack of money. But even with a loss of a job, careful and responsible planning, can avoid non-payment of mortgage payments. (As you can see not many people do that.) The 2nd, if the homes were appraised way over what they really were worth when they were purchased. Then when folks try to refinance their homes (to avoid thier payments increasing) the home does not appraise high enough to cover what they owe on it, so they walk away. No loan product is bad if you understand it. The reason they are there is to accomodate the demand. What people need to do is make sure thier debt-to-income ratios are not more than 40% with the new home debt, and put down some money 20% is preferrable (this is what was done in the good o'l days). Not everyone benefits from a 30 yr fixed loan product. All loans are dangerous if they are not understood. So, they should do thier homework, use a broker they trust, plan for emergencies and they will be fine.
yes - many of the foreclosures are due to ARMs.
how dangerous are they---pretty dangerous if you cannot calculate the monthly increase of these loans.
imagine paying $30 for electric a month and all of sudden you get a bill for $150. this is what these ARMs are.
people were just not savy enough when they signed.
the downturn in foreclosures is expected to impact the economy for another 24 months +.
hope this answers your question
good luck :)
it seems to be a combination of things
first you had the unprecedented growth of home equity over the past four years before the crash, this rapid growth lead to creation of certain risky loans,
these risky loans included small teaser rate note, to wit the borrow only had to qualify for the teaser rate payment and not the real payment, also zero interest loans for Short term
the reason to write these risky loans was the believe of the loan companies even if we loan risky monies to so so people the current trend of appreciation of land values will cover any of our mistakes
reality sets in, market reverses, the teaser rate becomes real rate hence your note payment doubles, value decreases,
My cousin bought her house when the market was going nuts out here in Arizona. Californians were coming over here spending gobs of money on houses, and that made the houses sell for way more than they were worth.
Now all these people who bought over-priced houses are in trouble because the market is going back toward normal. Those prices that were obscene... they're coming back down now. So now the values of those houses have gone down from what everyone paid, and so the owners can't get refinanced into something more affordable because their mortgage is higher than the value of the home.
I would stay away from ARM's unless you really know what you're doing with them. 30 year fixed still gives you a better deal because at least your rate can't go UP.
So part of the problem is all the people who jumped on the bandwagon and bought houses when the prices were sky-high.
A lot of those people got qualified by sub-prime lending, and many of those sub-prime lenders have disappeared or gone out of business. Some regular lender will have to take over servicing that loan, but they won't want to do it for sub-prime rates.
Lots of people are stuck in overpriced houses they can't afford, and they can't refinance. They can't sell because all the buyers are stuck in overpriced houses just like they are. And no one will buy their house from them for as high as they paid for it anyway because they over-paid by thousands of dollars.
It's a real mess, that's for sure.
The simple answer:
Because equity had been rising so fast over the last few years, there were no forclosures at all. People in trouble would simply take money out of thier home to bail themselves out.
Now there is no new equity, so anyone in trouble now, plus all those that have been in trouble for the last four years are facing forclosure.
In the long run, it is all cyclical and will be back the other way again.
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