Adjustable rate mortgages are back --- risks a new housing crisis

(Michelle, “Adjustable-rate mortgages are making a comeback. But are these loans right for you?,” pg online @ //um-ef)

Acopy edited adjustable-rate mortgages, known as ARMs, are back, despite having earned a bad reputation at the height of the housing crisis. Post-crisis borrowers saw them as risky because of their changing interest rates and blamed the glut of foreclosures on the inability of homeowners to handle higher payments when the loans reset. “ARMs became a four-letter word after the housing crisis,” says Ann Thompson, a retail sales executive for Bank of America in San Francisco. “They got a bad rap and were lumped in with ‘pick-a-payment’ loans, which allowed people to pay as little or as much as they wanted on their mortgage.” Lately there’s been a resurgence in ARMs. In January 2019, 8.6 percent of new mortgage loans had an adjustable rate, compared with 5.5 percent in January 2018, according to Ellie Mae, a software company that processes 35 percent of mortgages in the United States.