EDU Articles
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What is a Secondary Offering?
A secondary offering is the sale of a large block of previously-issued, privately-held stock, which actually requires registration with the SEC, but does not raise capital for the company which issued the shares originally. A secondary offering is a non-dilutive sale of existing shares which were previously held by one, or a few, investors. The proceeds of the sale go to the sellers of the shares and not to the company which issued the shares. Continue reading...
What is secondary market?
The secondary markets are where most trading goes on today, where the trades are made investor-to-investor using shares that were issued sometime before, and profits are made by investors and not the underlying company who issued the shares originally. The secondary market is a term used to describe the market created by those who are selling and buying shares which were issued some time ago in what's called the primary market. Continue reading...
What is Mortgage Fallout?
Mortgage fallout refers to the instance of proposed loans falling through before closing. This is something tracked by not only mortgage producers and their mortgage companies, but also economists who keep up with mortgages and the secondary market for mortgage derivatives. Since mortgages take two months or more to close, the fallout rate can indicate a stagnancy in the economy and trouble for the secondary mortgage market. Continue reading...
What is the FHFA?
The Federal Housing Finance Association is the Conservator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac since the 2008 meltdown. The FHFA was established as an independent government entity to oversee the secondary mortgage market. The FHFA is a regulatory agency which took over for the Federal Housing Finance Board and the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO). It was created in 2008 by the Housing and Economic Recovery Act (HERA), and it oversees the operations of Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, and the 11 federal home loan (FHL) banks. If you’ll recall, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac provide liquidity to banks and transfer risk from them by buying their mortgage cash flows from them. Continue reading...
What is a No-Cost Mortgage?
No-Cost Mortgages waive the initial closing costs by making a repayment structure for those costs into the interest payments on a mortgage loan. Closing costs can range from 2%-5% of the total cost of the home, and include attorney fees, underwriting fees, application fees, and so on. These costs are deferred and are paid in the form of additional interest on the loan. Closing costs are separate from down-payments of equity, and are a miscellaneous hodgepodge of a wide range of fees associated with closing a mortgage deal. These costs are sometimes covered by the seller, but most often they are paid by the buyer. Continue reading...
What is a Mortgage?
When a mortgage loan is made to a consumer, the bank or loan institution is the mortgagee, while the consumer is the mortgagor. Mortgages are long term loans secured by the real property of the individual borrowing the money, and they are generally used for homes, called home mortgages. The lending institution, which might be a bank or a mortgage company, is the mortgagee, lending money to the homebuyer, who is the mortgagor. Continue reading...
What is a Mortgagor?
The mortgagor is the borrower in a mortgagor/mortgagee relationship, where the mortgagee is the lending institution that makes the mortgage loan. Mortgages are used to purchase real property, usually single family homes. The purchase of a home with a mortgage and the payments on the mortgage are one of the largest financial decisions or obligations that a mortgagor will ever make. If a mortgagor is delinquent on payments, he or she might be categorized as a home debtor, and the loan would be subject to foreclosure. If there is a foreclosure, the bank or lender will reposes the house, evict the former owner, and sell the house as quickly as possible, sometimes through an auction. Continue reading...
What Rights Does Owning Shares of Corporation Give You?
Shareholders of a company are part-owners of the company, and they are entitled to two things: voting for board members, and participation in earnings. Owning shares (even one single share!) of a publicly-traded corporation entitles you to the right to vote in elections for the Board of Directors, as well as the right to receive a proportional amount of all the profits of the company. These rights apply to common stock, which is generally the kind of stock traded on exchanges. Of course, you also have the right to sell your shares on the stock exchange at any time, in what is known academically as the Secondary Market. Continue reading...
What are the Basics of Stocks?
This article and the ones that follow should give you a solid foundation in the knowledge of stocks and their use as financial instruments. We have established the basic structure of a common stock share: a company issues stock to raise capital, the owner of the stock is entitled to participate in the profits of the company, and stocks are traded in the Secondary Market between buyers and sellers who assume the risk and receive any proceeds that arise from price changes. Continue reading...
What is a Stock?
Buying a stock means taking an ownership position in a publicly traded company. Once you purchase a stock, you become a shareholder. A company has two ways of acquiring capital needed for growth: borrowing it (often in the form of issuing bonds), or selling shares of their company's equity, which is known as stock. In other words, when you buy shares of a company’s stock, you are buying a claim to the company's profit margin, because you are technically a part-owner in the company. Those who hold shares of Common Stock, the most typical form of stock, have voting rights in the election of the company’s board members. Continue reading...
What is Bond Yield?
Bond yield is a measure of the return on investment for bonds, and there several kinds of yield that can be computed. Yield on a bond is the amount of interest that it pays annually, as a percentage of the amount invested — at least, this is the most common type of yield discussed, which is known as Current Yield. If a bond pays quarterly or monthly income to the investor, these payments are totaled up and divided by the amount invested. Continue reading...
What is a Home, Legally-Speaking?
The laws concerning a legal residence or primary residence may come into play for purposes of insurance, state taxes, and business matters. Some people have secondary residences, some people choose to remain legal residents of one state while they inhabit another. It can be quite complicated and various statutes may apply, depending on the situation. It can matter for a mortgage loan, for local voting, for healthcare and for business: what is a home? Continue reading...
What is a Mortgage Forbearance Agreement?
In the event that a borrower is having issues making mortgage payments on time, they may try to seek a mortgage forbearance agreement to delay the foreclosure process. The mortgage forbearance agreement would specify the plan for resuming mortgage payments on time, and is designed to be a temporary solution to an unforeseen issue with the borrower (unemployment, health issues). Continue reading...
What is Mortgage Life Insurance?
Mortgage life insurance is any life insurance policy which covers the life of the borrower in a mortgage loan and assigns the mortgage lender as a creditor-beneficiary entitled to recoup their losses from the life insurance policy. The bank or lender will be designated as the assignee for the collateral of the life policy. Historically speaking, mortgage life insurance was a term policy with a decreasing death benefit, also called a face amount, that equaled the remaining amount due on the mortgage loan. As the home was paid off, the amount of life insurance required would decrease, and, in most cases, the premium with it. Continue reading...
What is Ginnie Mae?
Ginnie Mae is the colloquial name for the Government National Mortgage Association, or GNMA. It brokers mortgage-backed securities which are backed by the full faith and credit of the US Government. Among Ginnie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Fannie Mae, only Ginnie Mae is actually owned by the government and issues securities which are backed by the full faith and credit of the US Government. Ginnie Mae’s mission is to increase liquidity and decrease risk to mortgage lenders so that Americans are able to purchase homes. Continue reading...
What is a Home Mortgage?
A home mortgage is a long-term loan for the purchase of a home, secured by the value of the home itself. Banks as well as mortgage companies make mortgage loans to consumers and charge an interest rate for the duration of the loan that may be fixed or variable. Mortgage loans generally last for between 15 to 30 years, and they are constructed so that paying off a home can fit into a person’s budget while a bank or lending institution collects interest on each payment. Continue reading...
What is a Mortgage Broker?
Mortgage brokers act as agents for consumers looking for the best deal possible on a home mortgage loan. Lenders at banks may not be able to find the most competitive interest rates out there. Mortgage brokers can help consumers become more educated about the various kinds of loans out there, some of which are subsidized by the government. Mortgage brokers find and place mortgage loans with consumers who need it to buy a house. Continue reading...
What is a Jumbo Loan?
A jumbo loan is a mortgage loan that exceeds the conforming loan limits set by the Office of Federal Enterprise Housing Oversight. For borrowers with low debt to income ratios and good credit scores, jumbo loans are often utilized for purchases of larger or luxury homes. Often times jumbo loans are too large in size to be guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and are securitized in other ways. Continue reading...
What is a No-Fee Mortgage?
No-fee mortgages are synonymous with no-cost mortgages, which might apply to first mortgages or refinancing arrangements where the closing costs are paid by the lender, broker, or bank, but a higher interest rate is charged on the loan as a means of recouping those waived fees. Closing costs and fees are calculated based on the total amount being loaned, and might be about 3% for a first mortgage and 1.5% for a refinanced mortgage. When the fees and closing costs associated with a mortgage loan are waived for the borrower, they are usually baked in to a higher interest rate on the loan. Continue reading...
What is Mortgage Fraud?
Mortgage fraud is misrepresentation in mortgage contracts designed to benefit one or more parties to the contract. Sometimes it can be as simple as an applicant lying about financial information to make himself seem more credit-worthy. Sometimes it can involve a few people, such as a real estate agent, an appraiser, and a lender, all colluding to split the profits on a property that isn’t worth as much as they say it is. Continue reading...