Mortgage Reset Mania

This week is kind of a mess, so I’m going to have to make do with a "drive-by posting," in which I simply point to someone else’s content.

Today’s someone-else is Barry Ritholtz of The Big Picture, a financial blog of which I am quite fond. And the content is his recent post on the impending wave of mortgage resets in 2006 and 2007: $2 trillion dollars worth of mortgages, to be exact, or about 1/4 of all mortgages.

Many borrowers in this category still have plenty of equity. For instance, someone who took out an ARM with a 3-year reset is sitting on a pile—although these folks will receive quite a payment shock. Recipients of 2-year resets have less equity, but still a little something. Those who got a 1-year ARM in 2005 will get a substantially higher payment with no equity to show for it. As time progresses, this mix will get worse… as will the number of resets. If interest rates don’t cooperate things will be ugly in 2007… but either way, this is yet another headwind facing the housing market.