What Is A Subprime Mortgage?
To understand what is a subprime mortgage, we need to talk about the subprime definition. Subprime means something that is not in the best conditions and, in this scenario, it refers to a subprime borrower; that is someone who has a complicated financial history and provides too much risk for the lender. These borrowers might have filed for bankruptcy in the last 5 years, defaulted two or more times in the recent past, might have a large pending debt and/or a low credit score – or even no established credit history at all. A subprime mortgage is the type of mortgage offered to that profile of borrower.
But so what; is this subprime mortgage just like regular mortgages? Is the subprime mortgage definition made just to separate bad borrowers from good borrowers?
No, to compensate potential losses from those customers who may run into trouble and default, subprime mortgages have a higher interest rate. Those loans are also usually easy on the way in but become burdensome on the way out – they take advantage of the fact that the person has no other option. Most subprime borrowers that manage to fix their situation try a second mortgage later on to try and soften the weight of the later payments.
Subprime mortgages played a big part in the financial crisis of 2008 when hedge funds noticed they could make a lot of money off the buying and selling of those mortgages. They would buy the mortgage from the Lender and manage it with the borrower and everything went well for them until housing prices started to decay lower than the mortgage itself. That took the refinancing possibility off the table – and you couldn’t sell the home either because there was no one buying – which lead to (too) many owners of these mortgage-backed securities trying to collect their insurance against the mortgage defaults, which, in turn, made it financially overwhelming to powerhouse insurance companies that almost went bankrupt, and so was set the scenario for the period that became known as “The Great Recession”.
Popular Mortgage Glossary Terms
The lender's risk that, between the time a lock commitment is given to the borrower and the time the loan is closed, interest rates will rise and the lender will take a loss on selling ...
The portion of the monthly payment that is used to reduce the loan balance. ...
The longest period for which the lender will lock the rate and points on any program. On most programs, the longest lock period is 90 days; some go to 120 days and a few to 180 days. It ...
The sum of all interest payments to date or over the life of the loan. This is an incomplete measure of the cost of credit to the borrower because it does not include upfront cash ...
A sale price below market value, where the difference is a gift from the sellers to the buyers. Such gifts are usually between family members. Lenders will usually allow the gift to count ...
In connection with a home, the value of the home less the balance of outstanding mortgage loans on the home. ...
Proliferation in the number of loan, borrower, property, and transaction characteristics used by lenders to set mortgage prices and underwriting requirements. Nichification is unique to ...
A transaction in which interest is not paid on interest there is no compounding. For example, if you deposit $1,000 in an account that pays 5% a year simple interest, you would receive ...
A computer-driven process for informing the loan applicant very quickly, sometimes within a few minutes, whether the application will be approved, denied, or forwarded to an underwriter. ...
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