What is currently going on in the mortgage market?

Question

I have to give a speech in one of my classes about trends in the current mortgage market. If someone could please explain to me what is going on at the moment in the market? What happened this past year to cause the market to tank? Why are foreclosures on the rise? Why are home values dropping? Just, what on earth is going on that is causing all this havoc or is it just a bunch of media hype?

Answer 1

When banks were paying 1% interest on savings acounts in 2004, people were looking for any investment that would pay them more than 1%.   They bought houses.  And the houses went up as more people bought them.  At one point houses were going up $10,000 a month.

In the old days your local banker would give you the money to buy your house.  You filled out an application and they loaned you the money. Later, big financial firms learned that they could bundle these small loans and sell them like stocks and bonds.  You could buy a share of 10 or 100 home loans in Chicago or Phoenix.  As those people paid their mortgage, you got your money. Finally the local banks sold all their loans to "Wall Street" (the big financial companies).  The local bank didn't collect the loan payments for 30 years like they used to.  All they got was a $500 fee for getting the loan started.  It was so easy that the local banker stopped checking if the home buyer was actually able to afford the new mortgage payments.  No one cared.  The bank didn't care because it wasn't their money.  It was someone else's money.  So everyone who walked in the door could get a loan.  The hidden problem is that the loans were adjustable.  They had to be so the buyers could afford the payments.  Well, that is great until they adjust.  THen everything falls apart.  All the homeowners want to sell and get out from under the "high" payments.  When everyone wants to sell at the same time, buyers get scared. WHy are 9 houses on one block for sale.  So the buyers stopped buying.  

The sellers held out as long as they could but finally stopped making the payments.  The banks now own the house.  Thousands of houses on the market at the same time and no buyers.  It is a big mess.

Answer 2

Which Real Estate market and where? ie: Commercial/Industrial or residential? Which country? - Different countries are suffering for slightly different reasons.

Answer 3

Its partially hype but mostly a very hard and painful lesson. I plan on doing a seminar soon on this topic

1. Borrowers.  they're not educated enough, they don't understand the entire mortgage process fully and usually don't have a plan to use a home as an investment vehicle.  Also, they were greedy, buying too much home and using a home as an atm, meaning if they had equity in the home, they took it out in the form of cash to go on vacation, buy a car, tv, everything but take care of the home itself, the main investment.  After the tech bubble crash, everyone was looking for the next quick cash venue, and with homes gaining 10-15% in value each year, it was an easy choice.  Fundamentally, as borrower's we've forgotten the value of a dollar and how to save for it.

2.  Mortgage professionals.  I said borrower's were uneducated, so were many professionals, they did not inform borrowers of the pros and cons of the mortgage programs.  There is no perfect mortgage, every program has it's faults.  They never assisted borrower's in proper planning either, it was always, refi later, take out equity, to h**l with your future tie that in with assisting borrower or fudging borrower's income themselves, you have a recipe for disaster.

3.  Lenders.  They didn't help matters, they got greedy like the entities above, arm loans, interest only, pick a payment......are you kidding me!  Add to this no doc loans, where an application was taken and the lender approved it based on credit and appraisal, no verification of income.  The borrower and professional just gave the lenders what they wanted, the lenders UNDERWROTE AND APPROVED these loans.  Lenders approved loans to 125% of the appraised value, meaning you could borrower more than the home was worth!!!

Values are dropping as reality has set in, there was no way the home values could keep rising like they were, the economy could not sustain it, tack on higher fuel, food and other commodity prices and disaster has struck.  Add to the mix that the arm and interest only loans are now adjusting, meaning that not only are the interest rates rising, but borrower's have to pay back the principle as well and people don't have the money any more.  We all lived in fantasy land, as a society, we've forgotten how to plan, budget and save, it's always the easy way, lenders have learned that verifying income is important and mortgage pros have lost their jobs, and rightfully so....I hope this helps

Answer 4

Not only did lenders give bad mortgages to people they knew could not afford them. They are now not as willing to help save homes even though it would benefit them and the economy. There are programs that people can use to save their home thru loss mitigation.

Answer 5

From a Realtor's point of view:

I have been a Realtor for 10 years I started before the market was booming and I have, so far, stuck it out during the bad times.  What I saw were people buying homes they could not afford.  Financing 110% of the home's value at a low introductory interest rate, they planed on making more money or landing a better job in the future; but instead their interest rate went from 4% to 7% and were not able to refinance because their home's value decreased by 20% or more. Others borrowed money from their equity while home prices were up, now that they have dropped, some have been forced to move and can not sell their homes for what they owe and are forced to walk away from them.

Foreclosures are on the rise because people made poor decisions.  The people who did not fall into the gimmicks are not able to sell their homes for a fair price because of the number of foreclosure.  

It is definitely havoc, I am seeing people who should be thinking about retiring, loosing everything.