In the recent weeks many people is refinancing with new adjustable rates mortgages that keep monthly payments low.
Faced with a sharp increase in the monthly payments and a need to take cash out of their homes, people is refinancing eralier this year to keep payments the same.
By the time the loan rate goes up, your income will have increased enough to cover the higher payments.
Typically set at artificially low rates in the first years of the loan, these mortgages are then reset at the prevailing interest rates.
For borrowers, the bet was that interest rates would remain low. Now the first big wave of the loan boom is cresting more than $300 billion worth of adjustable-rate mortgages, or about 5% of all outstanding mortgage debt.
For instance, a typical borrower with a $200,000 ARM could see his monthly payments increase neraly 25%, when the ARM adjusts from 4.5 percent to 6.5 percent. In total dollars, that is an increase from $ 1013 a month to $ 1254.
Instead of paying more now, many borrowers are refinancing into their second or third adjustable-rate mortgage.
So far, the number of borrowers refinancing this way is relatively...