
When people bought homes during the housing bubble, they often used toxic financing terms like teaser rates, negative amortization, and other parlor tricks to get themselves into a home they couldn’t afford. Their plan (assuming they had one) was to refinance into a new loan in a few years when their payments skyrocketed. Ostensibly, they were going to get stable financing in the future, but realistically most would have opted for another toxic loan to keep their costs down while they made huge profits on appreciation. The process was known as serial refinancing, and many people fell for it. The false assumption they shared was that another toxic loan would always be available. The credit crunch rudely exposed the folly…[READ MORE]