Distressed homeowners get help
WASHINGTON — New moves by finance giant Freddie Mac and a major lending institution involving billions in high-priced mortgages may mean that the urgings of regulators and lawmakers for help to distressed homeowners are bearing fruit. But the complexity of the mortgage business sets up a difficult balance between the goal of stemming foreclosures and the need to keep the market robust, experts said Wednesday.
Home-mortgage delinquencies and foreclosures have been surging in recent months, especially for people who took out subprime mortgages — higher-priced loans for people with tarnished credit or low incomes who are considered greater risks. The distress has roiled financial markets and stoked anxiety that it could spill over into the broader economy.
“This is a very, very difficult situation for which there are no easy answers,” said Bert Ely, a banking consultant based in Alexandria, Va.
Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored company that is the second-largest buyer and guarantor of home loans in the country, announced Wednesday that it will buy as much as $20 billion in fixed-rate and adjustable-rate mortgages to help borrowers with high-priced loans keep their homes. The new mortgages, expected to be available by midsummer, will include loans with longer fixed-rate terms.
Fannie Mae, the No. 1 mortgage financer, also is offering new options so that lenders can help subprime borrowers refinance out of high-interest adjustable-rate mortgages or other difficult loans.
And Washington Mutual Inc., one of the country’s largest financial institutions, said it will refinance up to $2 billion in subprime mortgages to help borrowers avoid default and foreclosure, allowing them to apply for discounted fixed-rate home loans or other refinancing alternatives. Subprime loans comprise only about 6 percent of Seattle-based Washington Mutual’s mortgage holdings, but they dealt a heavy blow to its first-quarter earnings, which slid 20 percent.
Especially precarious are the millions of adjustable-rate mortgages, known as ARMs, which are very prevalent in the subprime market. They are considered higher-risk loans because they typically draw borrowers in with an initial low “teaser” interest rate, which can spike upward after the first few years.
A homeowner who takes out a $200,000 ARM with a teaser rate of 4 percent, for example, initially pays $954.83 monthly in principal and interest. But when the interest rate jumps to 7 percent, say, in the second year of the mortgage, his payments rise to $1,320.59 a month — a move that regulators call “payment shock.”
Nearly 2 million ARMs are resetting to higher rates this year and next — setting up a potential wave of foreclosures that has put policymakers on edge.
The moves by Freddie Mac and Washington Mutual came a day after federal regulators called on lenders to work with struggling homeowners unable to meet payments on high-risk mortgages.