Principal

A mortgage on which half the monthly payment is paid twice a month. It should be called a 'semi-monthly mortgage' but market practice often trumps logic. In contrast to a biweekly, a ...

An agreement by the lender not to exercise the legal right to foreclose in exchange for an agreement by the borrower to a payment plan that will cure the borrowers delinquency. ...

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 lender commitment to make a mortgage loan to a specified borrower, prior to the identification of the property that will be mortgaged. On a pre-approval, unlike a pre-qualification, the ...

Proliferation in the number of loan, borrower, property, and transaction characteristics used by lenders to set mortgage prices and underwriting requirements. Nichification is unique to ...

The dollar amount of interest paid each month. The interest payment is the same as interest due so long as the scheduled mortgage payment is equal to or greater than the interest due. ...

A sale price below market value, where the difference is a gift from the sellers to the buyers. Such gifts are usually between family members. Lenders will usually allow the gift to count ...

Loan applications that are withdrawn by borrowers, because they have found a better deal or for other reasons. ...

The process of raising cash periodically through successive cash-out refinancings. This is a scam initiated by mortgage brokers that victimizes wholesale lenders, with the connivance of ...