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Wednesday, November 12, 2014


Alternative Mortgages Making a Comeback

Adjustable-rate mortgages, jumbo mortgages, interest-only home loans, and piggybacks are just some of the products that all but vanished after the economy imploded. Now, they appear to be making a comeback in certain regions. CoreLogic DataQuick reports that ARMs accounted for just 3.5 percent of loans used to purchase Orange County, Calif., homes in the spring of 2009. Since the first of this year, one in five Orange County purchase loans was adjustable. Nationwide, nearly one in 10 loans was adjustable this past spring -- an increase from one in 66 five years earlier, reports Black Knight Financial Services. After bottoming out in 2012, mortgage credit has become increasingly available over the last couple of years, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association's mortgage credit availability index. That measure has climbed 17 percent since February 2012. Nevertheless, credit remains very tight. MBA chief economist Mike Fratantoni says the index shows that it was nine times easier to obtain a loan in 2006 than it is today.

From "Alternative Mortgages Making a Comeback"
Orange County Register (CA) (11/09/14) Collins, Jeff

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