Quote from Alizar:
My wife and I bought our house with 10% down, and took out a second mortgage for the other 10% to avoid the mortgage insurance. This was cheaper than a larger first and paying PMI, even though the second was at a higher interest rate. We have several friends who recently bought houses and financed it similarly. In this case, we are all recently out of college with good paying jobs.
About 2 yrs later we had the second completely paid off. Not everyone who doesn't have 20% down is a total risk.
The fact is is that mortgage allows you to really leverage your money. While most Americans do not have the discipline to properly use an Option Arm or 100% financing, if used correctly 100% financing is a great tool to really grow your money. I put down money when you don't have to?
Green Point has some great blended rates for 100% financing. Stated stated 700 mid score will get you a blended rate of 7.5 at par for the broker. Of course with 6% seller concessions I just charge all my money up front and let the buyers pay my broker fees.
I usually try to do 100% financing 80% 12 Mat OPtion arm 20% heloc for my clients, as HELOCs are tax deductible.
DTI is a compensating factor in mortgage and it appauls me to see that some lenders will allow up to a 55% DTI (debt to income ratio). This is part of the reason why there are so many foreclosures.
A lender will lend $160,000 to a home buyer on a LIBOR Arm at a 1% note rate for 3 years. Well, that payment is only going to run them around $650/month. The buyer is only making $2500/month but has a car payment and some student loans and at full index rate the DTI will be around 45%. Now with a low mortgage the buyer accumulates more monthly expenses and the DTI is now around 55% 3 years later when the ARM adjusts. The $650/month payment quickly becomes $1,000 and on top of that you know the buyer was paying the minimum payment and now has $6,500 in neg am. Now, if this was during the real estate boom back in the early 2000's, it's no big deal, just refinance pay off debt and treat your house like an ATM machine. Not so much the case anymore.
The underwriter by not really examining so many cases like this really put the economy in a rut. This is especially the case with inflated stated income programs where 'Senior Executive Vice Chairman of Food Inventory" at Mc Donald's (aka Shift Manager) stated that he was one of the best paid SEVC's in Mcdonald's..
It's sad but, the recession is coming and it's going to be bad. Countrywide isn't loving life so much anymore now that they've sold so many LIBOR ARMs and they're not getting their money..