6.19.2006

Some things should be obvious

You'd have to be pretty stupid not to have seen this coming... or to have taken Alan Greenspan's advice and gotten an adjustable-rate mortage.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Enough harping on rising interest rates. Greenspan’s point is that people were paying a premium (around 0.5%) to lock in an interest rate for 30 years for no reason. If there is a 90%+ chance that you will not keep the loan for more than 10 years, you do not need a 30 year fixed loan. You are paying a premium for protection from rising interest rates that is a waste. That being said, Greenspan’s advice was not aimed at people who have 900% leverage in their homes. It was aimed at the traditional 20% down + 30 year fixed mortgagee.

W.C. Varones said...

Your first point is true, at least partially. If you know you're going to sell the house within a few years, and you're can tolerate the possibility of having to sell at a loss in a rising rate environment, then ARMs may be appropriate.

But your second point is not correct.

"Greenspan’s advice was not aimed at people who have 900% leverage in their homes. It was aimed at the traditional 20% down + 30 year fixed mortgage."

First of all, Greenspan never made this caveat. Second, there are almost no 20% down, 30-year fixed-rate loans being sold any more. Everyone is smoking the Greenspan chronic. Third, even if you did put 20% down, that doesn't insulate you from rising rates. Your payments still go up significantly. And if you can't afford the new payments, you'll have to sell or do a cash-out refinance... which only works until we have a down market.

Happy Super Tuesday!