No-Cost Mortgage
Definition of "No-Cost Mortgage"
A mortgage on which all settlement costs except per diem interest and escrows are paid by the lender and/or the home seller. A no-cost mortgage should be distinguished from a 'no-points mortgage,' which will have other settlement costs, and a 'no-cash-outlays mortgage,' on which settlement costs are added to the loan balance. Calling the latter 'no-cost' is extremely deceptive. A true no-cost mortgage is one where the interest rate is high enough to command a rebate from the lender that covers the closing costs (except for per diem interest and escrows, which borrowers always pay). In general, they make sense only for borrowers who expect to hold their mortgages for no more than five years. A borrower with a longer time horizon and who has the cash to pay settlement costs ought to avoid the no-cost option. Lenders demand a high interest rate for rebates because they assume they won't enjoy it very long. The average life of high-interest-rate loans is short. A borrower who pays the high rate for a long time gets a bad deal. It is akin to a healthy person buying life insurance from a company that mainly insures diabetics and smokers and prices its insurance accordingly. The critical number for potential borrowers is the 'break-even period' (BEP) for a no-cost loan, relative to the same loan with a lower rate on which the borrower pays the costs. Over periods shorter than the BEP, the no-cost loan has lower costs. Beyond the BEP, the no-cost loan has higher costs. One important side benefit of no-cost mortgages is that shopping for them is relatively easy. The shopper needs quotes on only one price dimension the interest rate.
Popular Mortgage Terms
An interest rate index that is used on some ARMs. ...
The sum of all interest payments to date or over the life of the loan. This is not a good measure of the cost of credit to the borrower because it does not include upfront cash payments and ...
Limit on the size of payment change on an adjustable rate mortgage. ...
The number of months for which the initial interest rate holds on an ARM. ...
A mortgage on which the interest rate is adjustable based on an interest rate index, and the monthly payment adjusts based on a wage and salary index. Dual index mortgages are not written ...
Same as term housing expense. The sum of the monthly mortgage payment, hazard insurance, property taxes, and homeowner association fees. Housing expense is sometimes referred to as PITI, ...
A charge imposed by the lender if the borrower pays off the loan early. The charge is usually expressed as a percent of the loan balance at the time of prepayment or a specified number of ...
Every ARM is tied to an interest rate index. An index has three relevant features:availibility, level, volatility. All the common ARM indexes are readily available from a published source, ...
Authorization by the lender for the borrower to pay taxes and insurance directly. This is in contrast to the standard procedure, where the lender adds a charge to the monthly mortgage ...
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