Dealing with Piggy Back Mortgages
Dealing with Piggy Back Mortgages
by Joel H. Violette
Banks have devised a new type of home loan called a piggy back mortgage that splits the entire loan value into two separate loans edmonton mortgage rates. A mortgage may be structured so that 80% of it is in one loan and another loan to cover all or part of the balance of the total value is set up.
The main purpose of piggy back mortgages was to make mortgages available to borrowers who couldn’t afford a large deposit. When the deposit is small, the risk of the lender rises, for two reasons. The loan is for a larger amount, so the intrinsic risk is greater. And the borrower has a very small amount of his own funds at risk, and so is considered a higher default risk.
Because of this additional risk, banks insist that such borrowers have mortgage insurance to protect the lender mortgage broker in edmonton. The homeowner pays the mortgage insurance with his monthly mortgage payment, but it is not eligible for the tax benefits.
To try to regainthis tax advantage for their customers, banks devised this system whereby they could lend them the more normal 80% of the property value, and lend the other section in a different loan. A loan for 80% of the value of a home is considered a “conforming loan”, and is eligible to be traded on the secondary mortgage market. The other, non conforming loan is not sold, and cannot be.
Now the borrower has two loans, but he does not have to pay mortgage insurance because the bank lowered the risk, but both of his loans have the same tax advantage.
Another reason a piggy back loan may be given is to get around the restrictions on jumbo mortgages. Loans conforming to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac provisions cannot exceed $417,000. Above this figure they are considered jumbo mortgages and since they are not eligible, command a higher interest rate.
A lender may choose to break the loan down on a home into two pieces. An original mortgage of $450,000 would be divided into a conforming loan of $400,000, with the lower interest rate, and a non conforming mortgage at a higher interest rate, but of only $50,000.
In most cases, a piggy back mortgage is structured so that the first, larger portion is a longer term loan of 20 or 30 years, and the second is a smaller one that amortizes in 5, 10 or 15 years. These second, smaller loans can be structured as balloon loans, so that despite the fact that they are amortized on a 20 or 30 year schedule, the principle comes due in a shorter term of five or ten years.