Be Cautious of Easy Mortgages

Filed in archive Housing on January 19, 2006

Easy access to money can sometimes make you feel like you know how it all works together in your various transactions. In the area of home loans I think this may come back and bite a lot of people.

Holden Lewis of Bankrate.com mentions that recent industry commissioned polls reveal that most consumers don't really know much at all about home loans. Further they don't have any idea what to do if they fall behind in their mortgage payments.

They no longer consider their principal dwelling place but a source of income to use as needed. While it is true that it can be used that way, most don't understand the possible consequences of doing so.

The one positive thing coming out of these polls is that people are at least beginning to acknowledge their lack of understanding.

In one survey by Radian Guaranty, over 50% of homeowners responded that they didn't really know much about the options available concerning their mortgages when they bought their homes.

Wendy Allegree confirms this when she mentions that four out of ten first-time home buyers chose the no-money-down option in 2005.

In addition to no-money-down loans, the Mortgage Banker Association reports that approximately one-third of homeowners have taken out other types of high-risk loans- such as minimum payment and interest only.

What is the solution if you are considering buying a home today? There is really one simple question to ask yourself: How long do I plan to live in the home? If you plan on it for a long time, you can feel pretty safe. If not, you could find yourself owing more on the house through the mortgage you took out than what the house is worth.

The result could be that you could be stuck in a home or may have to be foreclosed upon if you needed to move to another part of the country.

Be cautious when being offered seemingly easy ways to enter a home. It may be easy to get in, but much harder to get out.