Sub-prime first, now Alt-A
Most consumers don’t really understand the mortgage market, and who can blame them? Sub-prime, Alt-A, A paper, Prime Rate, Discount Rate. What does it all mean?
You have probably heard quite a bit about the sub-prime market and how it is to blame for the mortgage crisis. Perhaps you are thinking that these sub-prime mortgages are not at fault, but the people who are not paying their mortgages are at fault. However, it is important to understand that many of these sub-prime mortgages contain “teaser rates” or “interest only” payments for the first few years. When the mortgages adjust after the initial period, the payment becomes unbearable, and even a person with good credit might not be able to afford the payment.
In fact, people with good credit are the next group of people who may further damage the mortgage market. Most banks can offer customers only “A paper” mortgages. Meaning people with excellent credit scores will qualify for A paper loans. To see a breakdown of credit scores and different grades of mortgages, click here. A paper loans are usually fixed rate, long term, principal and interest type mortgages – your “standard” mortgage and the one most people are familiar with.
However, there is a whole other industry out there – called “Alt A paper” loans. These loans are for people with a credit score of 640 or above, usually, and they are often referred to as exotic loans because they have different options. A popular Alt-A loan is the interest only loan, where a borrower pays only interest for the first 2, 5, or even 10 years. The catch: the balance stays the same. The benefit: a lower monthly payment. This is a great loan for someone who is not going to stay in a house very long, and who is living in an area where housing prices are or will increase.
Another popular Alt A loan is the Negative Amortization Loan, being touted by Wachovia as the “pick a pay” loan. This is a fascinating loan, that can give a borrower enormous flexibility and is especially beneficial to borrowers whose income varies, such as people who work on commission only. The Neg Am loan allows a borrower to pay interest only, a 15 year payment, or a 30 years payment, or a “minimum” payment, which does not cover the entire interest payment. This is where the negative amortization comes in.
That minimum payment covers only a portion of the interest. After3-5 years, depending on the loan terms, the mortgage will reset and all that interest that was not paid will be added on to the loan. If a borrower paid only the minimum payment for 3-5 years, he or she will actually end up owing more than the original loan amount. Some lenders, like the failed American Brokers Conduit, allowed the loan to increase up to 125% of the original amount. Other lenders permitted only 115% of the loan amount.
The neg am loan was very popular in Florida and I closed a lot of those loans. They were attractive in Florida because housing prices were increasing so drastically, that even if a person paid only the neg am amount, the value of their home would increase over and above the balance.
Other “Alt A” loans are loans that have easier qualifications. For example, the NINA loan – No Income/No Asset verification loan. Just have a credit score over 720 and you can get an 85% loan to value loan without even providing a paystub. Or the No Income Asset Verification loan, where you don’t have to prove your income, but you have to show you have a certain amount of assets – money in the bank.
This loan worked great if a borrower did not just make the minimum payment. But Americans like instant gratification and don’t always have the resolve to pay more than they need to. Some people really could not afford the full payment, and took out loans based on the minimum payment. When the housing market started to falter (and in Florida this was due in part to the real estate tax program called “Save our Homes”), and housing prices stopped rising, borrowers could not rely on the price of their homes to bail them out of their negative amortization. The result is people with generally good to excellent credit losing their homes.
Other Alt-A loans are loans such as NINA loans – no income/no asset loans. If your credit score is high enough, you don’t even have to prove your income. However, just because a person has a high credit score, it does not mean the person can afford a $2500 month mortgage payment. Normally, a lender’s underwriting department will make sure that a borrower’s income/debt ratios are not too high, and that a person’s income is sufficient to make the mortgage payments. With loans such as NINAs, a borrower has to know what he or she can afford because there is no one double checking.
So the sub-prime crisis may have reached its peak, but the Alt-A crisis is just about to begin.
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