Are you thinking you need a loan modification?
Has the time come when you've realized that your loan payment is no longer within your monthly budget? If so, you need to explore what your options are. First, please realize that you are not alone- there are hundreds of thousands of Americans who are in need of a loan modification or some sort of adjustment to their loan.
How did this big mess all come about?
That is a good question! I can explain exactly what happened and you'll have a clear understanding of how we got here and what the future might hold. There were several factors out of the control of the average homeowner.
First, understand that most people purchase homes based on the monthly payment. When the Federal Reserve loosened credit to save the economy in the wake of the NASDAQ dot-com tech wreck, plus the added disaster of September 11, 2001, the Fed had no control over where all that extra money and credit would flow. Most of that money found a home in, well, homes. Pardon the pun. The law of supply and demand dictates that anthing that is in over-supply becomes less valuable. So with all that extra money sloshing around, it became "cheaper" to use...meaning that interest rates, which are the fees that you pay to borrow money, went way down. So whereas it used to take $1000 per month to service $100,000 in debt, with lower interest rates it only took $600 or so to service the same $100,000 debt.
The immediate consequence was that home sellers naturally adjusted the price of their homes upward to reflect the added buying power of the buyer. For example, if a buyer could afford a monthly payment of $3000, then under regular interest rates $3000 would service $300,000 in debt.
But under the cheaper interest rates, $3000 would now service $500,000 in debt. (Remember in the paragraph above, service on $100,000 of debt dropped from $1000 to $600. Divide $3000 available by $600 and you end up with 5, then multiply 5 by $100,000 to arrive at $500,000.) So again, with this cheaper money available, prices naturally rose over time from $300,000 to $500,000.
The next factor was that once homebuyers saw prices rising so drastically, many people feared that if they didn't buy soon, they'd never be able to afford a home. Other people bought homes to speculate on the rising valuations. The consequence of all this additional buying drove prices even higher. Supply and demand again came into play- higher demand for a limited number of homes drove prices up- which spurred more panic buying.
As prices went up, all kinds of exotic loan programs were created based on home values increasing. These mortgage companies offered homeowners a loan at a low rate knowing or hoping they would average out the rate higher on the back end of the loan. For example banks would offer buyers a 5 year fixed loan at 4.5 percent, with a variable on the back side. As the mortgage companies were offering these loans, we home owners were thinking that after the 5 years we could just refinance.
Finally, (and this is the most complicated part) Wall Street played a very big role in the housing bubble. It used to be that if you wanted a home loan, you went to a bank and the bank loaned out it's own depositors money. Therefore, the bank was very careful to make sure that buyers were creditworthy and had the down payment, income, and assets necessary to service the loan. After all, the bank did not want to lose money ad it kept the mortgage on it's books as an asset that the homeowner would pay on. But all that changed when Congress and Wall Street got involved. Instead of keeping a loan on the bank's books for the length of the loan (usually 30 years) Wall Street offered to buy the loan from the bank and then bundle up lots of loans into securities that Wall Street could then sell on the open market.
The consequence of this was that the bank no longer had to be certain that it's borrowers were creditworthy. The bank did not keep the loans, but rather originated them and then sold them to Wall Street. So the bank did not have a vested interest in evaluating the buyer...because they could transfer their risk to Wall Street, which then passed the risk onto unsuspecting investors in so-called Mortgage Backed Securities.
It all worked just fine until people started to realize that there was not an unlimited supply of buyers in the world, no matter how cheap money was. At that point, prices had peaked and interest rates had bottomed and some folks heard that the lowest-quality Mortgage Backed Securities were comprised of loans taken out by people who had no means, intention or ability to pay back.
Two things to remember: 1. What goes up must come down...even real estate, and 2. In economics, everything is connected. Once investors in Mortgage Backed Securities found out that some of the securities were valueless, or at least worth much less than what they'd been led to believe, the investors didn't want to buy any more securities. Which meant that Wall Street couldn't sell any more securities. Which meant that
banks couldn't sell mortgages to Wall Street. Which meant that banks had to hold the loans themselves. Which meant that the banks suddenly started scrutinizing the creditworthiness of the buyers much more closely. Which meant fewer buyers qualified, and therefore fewer purchases were made, and suddenly prices stopped rising and started to fall.
The big problem begins
At the same time, interest rates moved higher, to compensate the banks for taking the risk of holding a mortgage. As rates went higher, prices had to start their descent thereby introducing some people to the idea of negative equity- and people who had no assets, no down payment and limited income started walking away from their properties.
For people with adjustable-rate loans, as rates moved up, home prices fell, equity was lost, and previously ubiquitous loan programs that-we were all relying on-disappeared almost overnight. The log jam began, with fixed homeowner "teaser" rates converting to adjustable rates with skyrocketing payments.
It's no wonder people have begun walking away from their homes. Any smart business owner will tell you to never keep a depreciating asset on your books. Homeowners started moving out, leaving only the keys behind. Mortgage companies were no help. They refused to work with their former customers, as there was no way to justify lending on a home with negative equity. Each day hundreds of homeowners are now coming to the realization that they cannot afford the home they live in.
This is one of the few times in history where billions if not trillions of dollars of value have evaporated. Every transaction has a buyer and a seller. Usually, the buyer pays for his purchase in full and if he so desires, sells it at a later time for a higher or lower price. In the recent housing bubble, everyone bought their homes on credit and banks loaned money on credit. Now with current real estate market conditions, homes are being repossessed at a greatly lower value.
Hence, value evaporation.
The beginning of the big mess clean up
Now that homes are going into foreclosure or short sales at alarming rates, the government and banks are trying to do something about it. They have to, as the aftermath of a real estate crash will have enormous repercussions. However, Hurricane Katrina taught us that it's best to not wait on government assistance. You have to help yourself and your family first. Negotiating a loan adjustment with your bank may be the answer.
Watch out for the bad guy . . . again!
Beware...we're seeing companies pop up every day who claim to be coming to your rescue. When considering loan adjustment, it's important to be an informed consumer and not fall into another trap. Be discerning about who you choose to represent you to the banks.
The guy who jumped on the daytrading bandwagon during the dot-com boom was the same guy who took advantage of you as a mortgage broker during the recent real estate boom...and he's the same guy coming back to you as a loan renegotiation "specialist". I can only imagine the programs they will tailor to get in your wallet just once more.
Be sure to choose ethical, experienced representation to renegotiate your loan.

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