Portable Mortgage
Definition of "Portable Mortgage"
A mortgage that can be moved from one property to another. Ordinarily, you repay your mortgage when you sell your house and take out a new mortgage on the new home you purchase. With a portable mortgage, you transfer the old mortgage to the new property. Benefits to the borrower: There are two. One is that it avoids the costs of taking out a new mortgage. This cost must be set against the cost of paying 3/8% more in rate, which rises the longer the period between the first purchase and the second. The break-even period comes out to roughly four years on a $150,000 loan. If you expect that you won't be buying your next house within four years, the cost saving on the future mortgage won't cover the cost penalty imposed by the 3/8% rate premium. The period is a little shorter on a larger loan, longer on a smaller loan. The second benefit is that it allows you to avoid any rise in market interest rates that occurs between the time you purchase one house and the time you purchase the next one. Since World War II, mortgage rates have been as low as 4% and as high as 18%. When rates are about 6%, there is clearly much greater potential for rise than for decline. If rates increase, the portable mortgage protects you, and if they decrease, you can get the benefit by refinancing. There is no prepayment penalty. Borrowers who confidently expect to move within five or six years and fear that a major spike in rates could seriously crimp their plans may find the 3/8% rate increment a reasonable insurance premium. It is less valuable for borrowers who expect to move every three years, since the transfer option can only be used once. Borrowers with the excellent credit needed to qualify for a portable mortgage should be confident that they can maintain that record. Borrowers in bankruptcy or behind in their payments cannot exercise the transfer option. In such a situation, they would have paid the 3/8% rate increment for nothing.
Popular Mortgage Terms
Same as term Qualification: The process of determining whether a prospective borrower has the ability to repay a loan. ...
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 minimum allowable ratio of down payment to sale price on any loan program. If the minimum is 10%, for example, it means that you must make a down payment of at least $10,000 on a ...
Interest that is earned but not paid, adding to the amount owed. For example, if the monthly interest due on a loan is $600 and the borrower pays only $500, $100 is added to the amount owed ...
The federal law that specifies the information that must be provided to borrowers on different types of loans. Also, the form used to disclose this information. Truth in Lending (TIL) is ...
Same as term housing expense. The sum of the monthly mortgage payment, hazard insurance, property taxes, and homeowner association fees. Housing expense is sometimes referred to as PITI, ...
The sum of all interest payments to date or over the life of the loan. This is not a good measure of the cost of credit to the borrower because it does not include upfront cash payments and ...
An agreement between a mortgage borrower in distress and the lender that allows the borrower to sell the house and remit the proceeds to the lender. A short sale is an alternative to ...
Markets in which mortgages or mortgage-backed securities are bought and sold. 'Whole Loan' Markets Versus Securities Markets: Secondary mortgage markets are of two general types. 'Whole ...
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