I’m always sceptical when the media jumps on a band wagon. Now they’re going after the “riskier” Adjustable Rate Mortgages. Here is an AP article on Yahoo!:
NEW YORK (AP) — In 2003, Anita Britten refinanced her two-story brick cottage in Lithonia, Ga. using a hybrid adjustable rate mortgage, or ARM. Her lender reassured her that she could refinance out of the riskier loan into a traditional one when her interest rate started to reset. Three years later, Britten can’t get a new mortgage and her monthly payment has jumped by a third in six months. She can’t afford her payments and may face foreclosure if her financial situation doesn’t change.
As more ARMs adjust upward and housing prices begin to dip, many Americans like Britten can’t refinance and are finding themselves trapped in too-high monthly payments. For those who can’t make their payments, foreclosure — the legal process by which the lender reposseses the house because the owner has defaulted on payments — is the only way out.
Original Article: http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/060619/foreclosure.html?.v=9
I guess I need more facts surrounding this circumstance before I can come to the conclusion that an ARM is the source of all her miseries.
Any thoughts?