Home Mortgage Interest Rates Pose Threat of More Foreclosures

According to the Treasury Department, around 420,000 adjustable rate home mortgages are expected to reset in 2009. However, instead of interest rates going up to 12 percent or more, rates are falling to values that are extremely low. In fact, some rates have been recorded as the lowest in 37 years.

Adjustable rate mortgages start with low introductory or teaser rates. This goes on for around two or three years, and then the interest rate start to change as determined by a set schedule. Interest rates may change every month or every year until the whole home mortgage loan is paid off.

Most homeowners have availed of this kind of mortgage plan, since they assume at the beginning that the value of their homes would appreciate as the months or years pass. In other words, they were counting on home refinancing as they pay their mortgage. However, the economic crisis has hit hard on the housing industry, causing a lot of homeowners to lose their properties and not being able to fulfill their home mortgage refinancing obligations. The values of houses and other similar properties have in fact dipped by 18.2 percent, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller index.

This has caused a negative effect on interest rates, as these continue to drop. Law professor Alan White of Valparaiso University said that the expected reset of interest rates to about 12 percent did not happen, and instead went to only around 9 percent and even less.

Most ARMs are dependent on the London Interbank Offered Rate, more popularly known as Libor. This means that homeowners with outstanding home mortgage loans will be affected by the current Libor rate. Currently, Libor rates are at 2 percent or less, making interest rates fall to as low as 8 percent.

Amid the current situation, experts still see delinquencies caused by ARM resets. This is according to John Taylor, CEO of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition or NCRC. When Libor rates increase, resetting ARMs will cause more damage. Therefore, it is wise not to be tempted by low ARM rates. Steve Habetz, a home mortgage broker based in Connecticut encourages his clients to refinance into 5 percent fixed-rate loans instead of availing of ARMs that are currently reset to a low 3 percent.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 26th, 2009 at 9:44 am and is filed under Home Mortgage Loan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.