Quote from jficquette:
Who owns the paper on mortgages these days?? In the old days, an S&L would own it and if the payments were not met they would promptly do something about it.
Now with the securitization of mortgages I am not clear on who actually decides to foreclose.
I guess I am also wondering who the counterparties to these foreclosed mortgages will be.
Thanks
John
Here is roughly how securitization works in Canada, should be fairly similar in the US.
Let's hypothetically say that you go to Bob's Mortgage Co. to get a mortgage for your house. The mortgage co. initially lends you, say, $300,000.
The cashflows of a mortgage are similar in some senses to that of a bond, with the exception that both principal and interest are paid to the investor over time (whereas the principal of a bond is typically repaid at maturity). So an individual with $300,000 to invest could buy a bond, deposit their money in an interest-bearing bank account, invest in an MBS (mortgage backed security) pool, etc.
Bob's Mortgage Co. then packages up your mortgage, along with a number of others, and securitizes those cashflows as a mortgage backed security pool. Mortgage insurance providers are sometimes involved in these pools (depending on quality of lending). For example, my understanding is that CMHC (Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation) offers insurance on some MBS pools in Canada, whereby the principal (but not interest) of an MBS pool is guaranteed by CMHC. The US equivalents of CMHC would be Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Regarding your question about foreclosures, it is typically the mortgage servicing company (and the courts) that determine when and how a foreclosure will take place. This is determined by the repayment (or lack thereof) by the mortgagor. So if you don't make your mortgage payments, the mortgage servicing company will need to foreclose on your property, at which point the recovered principal from the mortgage would flow through to the owners of securities in the MBS pool.
Hope this helps, I can try and answer any other questions that you might have.
Regarding your question about "who is holding the bag?" - in the case of an MBS pool, it would either be the investors in the pool, or the provider of insurance for the MBS pool. Keep in mind however that not all mortgages are necessarily part of MBS pools, so there are many traditional lenders that are involved in mortgages (though again the issue of whether or not the mortgage is insured is important).