Three or four years ago, interest rates on home loans dropped to levels not seen since the 1960’s. Millions of Americans took advantage of the favorable rates, which bottomed out near 5% for fixed rate, 30-year loans. For adjustable rate mortgages, they rates were even lower. Many buyers passed on the opportunity to lock in at fixed rates and gambled on the lower payments afforded by adjustable rate loans in order to buy either larger or more expensive homes. That worked out fine at the time, as the rates kept the monthly payments affordable. Unfortunately, the sixteen increases in the Federal interest rates since 2004 are about to have a dramatic effect on those buyers, many of whom many find out that they can no longer afford to pay for the homes in which they live.
Many adjustable rate loans are set up in such a way that the interest rate is fixed for the first three years of the loan’s repayment schedule. After that, the interest rate adjusts regularly, based upon prevailing market rates. For the millions of homeowners who gambled and took out these loans in 2003, the Big Adjustment is going to come soon, and it isn’t going to be pretty. As...