Pay-Down Magic

Authorization by the lender for the borrower to pay taxes and insurance directly. This is in contrast to the standard procedure, where the lender adds a charge to the monthly mortgage ...

Often referred to as a “second mortgage”, a home equity loan is a type of loan where the borrower disposes to the lender its equity to the home as collateral. To ...

A mortgage on which half the monthly payment is paid every two weeks. This results in 26 payments per year, which is the equivalent of 13 monthly payments rather than 12. Because of the ...

Refinancing for an amount in excess of the balance on the old loan plus settlement costs. When the main objective of a refinancing is to raise cash, the relevant question is whether the ...

A payment made by a lender to a mortgage broker for delivering an above-par loan. A par loan is one on which the lender charges zero points. Lenders charge points on loans carrying ...

The period between payment changes on an ARM, which may or may not be the same as the interest rate adjustment period. ...

A mortgage on which the borrower gives up a share in future price appreciation in exchange for a lower interest rate and/or interest deferral. SAM's in the private market had a brief ...

A borrower who must use tax returns to document income rather than information provided by an employer. ...

On an ARM, the assumption that the value of the index to which the interest rate is tied does not change from its initial level. ...