Re-Refinancing, and Putting Off Mortgage Pain

[Herman Munster]

It is the latest twist in the gravity-defying world of the high housing prices and exotic low-rate mortgages: As monthly payments on adjustable-rate mortgages are starting to balloon, many Americans have found a way to put off the day of reckoning.

Interactive Graphic: Betting Everything on the House They are refinancing with new adjustable-rate mortgages that keep monthly payments low — for now, that is, though their payments will likely rise even higher in the future.

“Some people would say I am a little crazy,” acknowledged R. Lance Perry, 42, of Danville, Calif., one of the new breed of people refinancing their mortgages. But faced with a sharp increase in his monthly payments and a need to take cash out of his home, he refinanced earlier this year to keep his payments the same.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/23/business/23mortgage.html?hp&ex=1153627200&en=48d3badc80108762&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[EST]

1. Maybe I'm getting old and out of touch, but this all strikes me

as kind of sad.

[mountainvue]

2. I don't encourage any of my clients

to get into an ARM right now. In fact, those that have them are trying to get out of them.

[enid602]

3. refinance

"But faced with a sharp increase in his monthly payments and a need to take cash out of his home, he refinanced earlier this year to keep his payments the same." Sound like a negative interest type of situation.