FLORIDA KNOWLEDGE CENTER

1% Mortgage Refinance loans, you’ve probably seen 100 different advertisements, but how is it possible? There is really only one big secret to 1% mortgages: 1% minimum payments are below the interest payable on the loan. Once we’ve addressed this feature, most of the other facets of 1% mortgages are relatively logical.

1% option mortgage ARMS are still one of the most popular programs in today’s market. Many borrowers enjoy the flexibility and control of the option arm because they can control their own amortization schedule.

1% mortgages, which now come in dozens of varieties with start rates from below 1% (some even starting at 0% for a few months after refinance) up to 4% or more, offer astonishingly low payments. Some of them offer fixed rates for 30 or even 40 years, some of them are adjustable from the day you take them out, all of these are basically “1% mortgages” and are extremely popular amongst homeowners today.

1% mortgages and their offspring are being used for debt consolidation, cash flow management, investments, and for tax purposes, and they are being used a lot.

A full 40% of home loans originated in 2005 and 2006 are estimated to be from the 1% mortgage family, with multiple payment options. By their proponents, the success of the 1% mortgage has been hailed as a new era of affordability and flexibility, of an extremely sharp financial tool once available only to the very rich now available to every family in the country.

Its opponents tend to think that the 1% mortgage is a bit too sharp for the average homeowner to handle, they fear “Average Joes” could conceivably cut themselves.

Despite their division, one thing is certain, the popularity of the 1% mortgage is driven by the relentless pursuit of the American dream. There are more homeowners in the United States today than in any other period in history, and many of those who own homes have only been able to accomplish home ownership, which was once a lifelong achievement, in their early 20’s and 30’s, largely because of the extended availability of these 1% mortgages to normal borrowers.

How much less expensive is a 1% mortgage payment option versus the comparable 30 Year Fixed traditional principal and interest payment?

FOR A $500,000.00 MORTGAGE:

1% Minimum Payment : $1200.00
Normal Loan Payment: $3000.00
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Cash Flow / Savings: $1800.00

It’s easy to see why the 1% mortgage refinance is so heavily marketed as a way to cut your mortgage payment in half. In the above example, the 1% mortgage minimum payment option is 60% less than a typical, traditional principal & interest loan payment. 1% mortgage minimum payments are usually 50% lower than even the highly lauded Interest Only payment mortgages, and most loans in the 1% mortgage family include the ability to pay more than just 1% if need be.

SO HOW DOES A 1% MORTGAGE WORK?

In fact, 1% mortgages are more than just the 1% start rate. They have a fully indexed rate as well, which is the true amount of interest due each month. When making a 1% mortgage minimum payment, the borrower is not paying all of the interest due, which is seen by some as a good thing and some as a bad thing. Let’s examine some of the commonly perceived benefits and caveats of 1% mortgages:

Commonly Perceived Benefits of the 1% Mortgage Family:

1. Extremely Low Monthly Minimum Payment: As we’ve seen in our example, the minimum payment option is less than half of the typical traditional mortgage payment.

2. Flexibility to Control Your Own Money: Unlike a traditional mortgage, which requires a payment to principal each month, 1% mortgages allow borrowers to take the power into their own hands to make principal payments when they want to, e.g after a bonus or a particularly good year, or to utilize the surplus cash at their own discretion.

3. Separate Cash Flow from Equity: While many personal finance pundits laud the benefits of building home equity, the reality is that investing home equity yields a 0% return on investment on a month to month basis. In the above example, paying the traditional principal and interest payment forces the borrower to invest $1800 more each month in their home, money which is locked up entirely in the equity of the home.

Home Equity is illiquid, meaning all this money locked in equity cannot be accessed unless the home is sold or refinanced. The bank won’t cut the borrower a check each month for accumulated home equity in a traditional loan.

With a 1% mortgage minimum payment, that $1800 difference in payments is money in the borrower’s pocket, to invest or spend at their discretion. By deferring interest using a 1% mortgage, the borrower has full access to money that normally would be locked up until they sold the property.

That $1800 per month adds up to over $100,000.00 in cash over 5 years on a 1% mortgage, and it’s available every time your paycheck does not get used up paying a huge traditional mortgage payment each month.

4. Maximize Debt Consolidation: Using a 1% mortgage refinance to pay off all of your other creditors, such as credit card companies and high interest rate lenders, means that you can save even more money than with a 1% mortgage refinance alone. Since you aren’t throwing high interest money at your creditors each month, the cash which you save by making the 1% mortgage payment actually goes into your pocket, your savings, your investments or wherever you need it most. That's ultimate control.

Let’s say that in our $500,000 1% mortgage example above, we rolled in $30,000 of credit card and other high interest debt that have a monthly minimum payment requirement of $1,000. By using a 1% mortgage refinance to pay off those debts, total monthly savings using the earlier example would be over $2800 per month, $1000 from the debt consolidation plus $1800 from the difference between the traditional loan payment at 6% and the 1% mortgage minimum payment.

5. Turn Equity into a Tax Deduction: First, the 1% mortgage payment is 100% interest and therefore should be 100% tax deductible in most cases. Secondly, One of the most attractive benefits of 1% mortgages is the additional tax deduction available on deferred interest.

What this means is that borrowers can realize a tax deduction on interest they did not have to lay out the cash for, and choose the time at which this deduction is realized, which can be a huge savings upon liquidity or refinance. For real estate investors, this is a huge advantage as it can often wash out the capital gains consequences of selling a property.

Disclaimer: We do not dispense tax advice, and you should consider consulting a CPA.

6. Easy Qualification: Normally, to qualify for low payment mortgages, borrowers are required to have exceptional credit. However, 1% mortgage refinance loans are routinely available to borrowers with credit scores as low as 620, and if they are borrowing less than 80% of the value of their home, scores can even be in the 500s provided there are no late mortgage payments reported on their credit file. The borrower’s income can be stated, and sometimes no income or employment documentation is required at all.

7. Enhanced Protection from Foreclosure: Because the minimum payment option is so low, the cash savings each month so high, and the loan is so flexible, the 1% mortgage family offers homeowners a low minimum payment option which they have a much higher likelihood of paying should they suffer an interruption of income or become disabled.

8. Biweekly Payments: A popular way to maximize the benefits of the 1% mortgage refinance is to elect to make biweekly payments (which are available on select 1% mortgages). This optimizes the loan to coincide with most borrower’s payment cycles and reduces any possible negative effects of deferring interest.

Commonly Perceived Caveats of the 1% Mortgage Family:

1. Artificially Low Payments: Because the minimum payments are so low compared to traditional mortgages, many pundits fear that people who would normally not qualify for home ownership can now own a home. The fear is that new or “low income” homeowners could “get in over their heads” by buying more house than they can truly afford. Ultimately, it is up to the borrower to decide how much they can afford.

2. Deferred Interest: Often referred to as negative amortization, this concern is commonly cited by journalists as a “negative” because the loan balance may increase over time if the minimum payment is always selected. However, this perspective does ignore the advantages of dramatically increased cash flow in the borrower’s pocket each month and the tax benefits of deferring interest.

Of course, the borrower can choose for themselves whether they want to spend their money paying interest to the bank or if they would rather put the difference into their own pockets.

3. Depreciation: If the value of the borrower’s home falls dramatically, and other factors force the borrower to sell the home while the value is low, the borrower may wind up owing more than the home is worth.

This is a valid risk over short periods of time for all types of mortgages, not just 1% mortgages. Even a traditional principal and interest mortgage does not pay off enough principal over the first 5 years of its life to offset a dramatic short term decline in home values.

The risk of property values declining is a real risk of owning property, period. However, history tells us that residential real estate appreciates consistently over any given ten year period in the past 50 years.

4. Too Easy To Qualify: This may not seem to be a disadvantage to most borrowers looking to purchase or refinance a home, but there are those who believe that borrowers should be forced to document significantly more income and assets to qualify for these types of loans.

A lot of this sentiment is an outgrowth of antiquated conceptions of 1% mortgages as a “Rich Man’s Mortgage”, which used to require significant net worth to obtain, and some of it is attributable to equally antiquated “one size fits all” notions about mortgages.

Your perspective will likely depend on whether or not you are in a position to provide extensive documentation of your income and assets in support of your loan application.

Many of the criticisms of 1% mortgages revolve around the adjustable rate variety of these mortgages, which like all adjustable rate mortgages go up and down with the rest of the market. However, in most 1% mortgages, the minimum payment stays fixed and can go up or down only 7.5% per year. So if your payment in Year 1 is $1000.00 , in Year 2 it can go no higher than $1075.00.

Because the rate on the loan can change more or less than the minimum payment, which is extremely low, the loan can result in the deferral of interest if only the minimum payment is made. Many of the amortization issues which are seen by critics of 1% Mortgages as their key detractor have been recently resolved by the introduction of fixed rate minimum payment loans to the 1% mortgage family.

Fixed rate 1% mortgage variations, the latest additions to the 1% mortgage family, have fixed interest rates from 3 to 30 years or more. The minimum payment option is generally available for the first 5, 10, 15 or in some cases 20 years of the mortgage, at which point the 1% mortgage payment recasts or readjusts to the interest only payment or the full principal & interest payment.

During the fixed period, the loan payment and interest rates of fixed 1% mortgages are utterly predictable and can be defined down to the penny. Many borrowers who would prefer a fixed rate can benefit significantly from the 30 year fixed 1% mortgage, which actually carries a minimum payment of 1.95% and a fixed rates in the 6% to 7% range for 30 years.

While there are those in the journalism community who believe that 1% mortgages have too much power for your average homeowner, ultimately the decision is in the homeowner’s hands. Make a high payment to the bank each month, or put the money in their pockets.

And homeowners seem evenly divided, as refinances into loans from the 1% mortgage category are projected to represent over 50% of all refinances in 2007. Traditional mortgages are not a one size fits all solution, and neither are 1% mortgages, but with low minimum payment options, excellent debt consolidation capabilities, significant cash flow and tax advantages made possible by deferring interest, and flexibility to control your finances or insulate yourself from interruptions in income or disability, 1% mortgages continue to post significant growth across the country.

Whether or not a 1% mortgage refinance is right for you should be determined by performing a detailed analysis of your personal financial situation with a home loan professional who has extensive experience with 1% mortgage products and strategies. As always, we welcome your calls and emails.

The key to success with a 1% mortgage is how you utilize the savings. If you use it to pay off other debt at an accellerated pace then it is a smart decision. If you use a 1% mortgage simply because you can't afford the full payment, maybe you should buy a less expensive home. That is the difference between managing debt and eliminating debt.

To find out if such a loan would be right for you, call me at 954-475-8787 for a free consultation.

All 1% mortgages are not created equal. While some of them are more suited for investors, long term fixed rate 1% mortgages (often with rates starting a bit higher than 1%) are excellent choices for many "normal" borrowers, with fixed rates for as long as 30 years.

Florida Mortgage Rates

Getting the right Florida Mortgage Program and Rate is probably the most important part of choosing your Florida Mortgage Loan. Having the best Florida Mortgage Rates will save you thousands of dollars through out the course of the mortgage Loan.

At American Mortgage Rates, we strive on finding the best Florida Mortgage Program and Rate possible for you, the client! Our Licensed Florida mortgage brokers constantly educate them selves on the latest and best Florida mortgage programs to better serve you. There are many different loan programs to choose from which all have different Florida Mortgage Program and Rate, so by staying educated in this area allows us to find you the best Florida Mortgage Program and Rate possible.

Fortunately, due to our production in the mortgage industry we have been able to meet certain standards with our lenders and banks. These standards allow us to pass additional savings to you the client because of our preferred pricing on our Florida Mortgage Program and Rate. Your Florida mortgage broker should go over all the possible Florida Mortgage Program and Rate when choosing your Florida Mortgage.

When inquiring about a Florida Mortgage to your Florida Mortgage broker, be sure to ask about what kind of pre-payment penalty that is associated with that particular Florida Mortgage Program and Rate, some Florida Mortgage Program and Rate have no pre-payment penalty where some have very high penalties. This is something your Florida Mortgage broker should go over with you when choosing the best Florida Mortgage Program and Rate for you.

Feel free to call or inquire over the web about today's Florida Mortgage Program and Rate, we will be happy to quote today's best Florida Mortgage Program and Rate that we have available to us.

Since we work with many Lenders we get the best Florida Mortgage Program and Rate available where when dealing with one particular bank they are limited to there own loan products where they might not have the best available Florida Mortgage Program and Rate that day, when banks compete with each you the savvy mortgage shopper could take advantage of this by working with a real good Florida Mortgage Broker who is up on the Florida Mortgage Program and Rate.

A fixed rate mortgage is a mortgage that has a fixed interest rate for the term of the fixed rate mortgage term. This means your principal and interest payment will not change for the entire term of the loan until it is paid off. A 30 year fixed rate mortgage means that you mortgage is fixed for 30 years. A 15 year fixed means the same that your payment will not change for 15 years and then your mortgage will be paid off.

An Adjustable rate mortgage is a mortgage that has an adjustable interest rate for the term of the mortgage. This means your principal and interest payment will change for the entire term of the loan until it is paid off. Adjustable mortgages can adjust monthly, yearly, or sometimes mat be fixed for 2, 3, 5, 7 and 10 years and then start to adjust more often.

For more information about our many loan programs and Florida Mortgage Program and Rate please call us at 954-475-8787 or fill out our short mortgage form.

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