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Negative equity is a term used to refer to when the value of an asset used to secure a loan is less than the outstanding balance on the loan. A person holding negative equity is said to be upside down. This can occur when the value of the asset stays fixed but the loan balance increases because loan payments are less than the interest, a situation known as negative amortization. The typical assets securing such loans are real property - commercial, office and residential. The typical loan is one secured when the property owner mortgages the property to secure the loan. When the loan is nonrecourse the lender can only look to the security, that is, the real property when the borrower fails to repay the loan. Applied to the owner-occupied housing market, a general fall in the market value of a mortgaged house or condo is the usual cause of negative equity. Negative equity in the owner-occupied market has sometimes occurred when the owner obtains second-mortgage home-equity loans so that the total loans exceed the home value when the loans are first made. This means that if the borrower immediately defaults on the loan, repossession and sale of the property by the lender will not raise enough cash to repay the amount outstanding, and the borrower will both have lost the property and may still be in debt. Some states like California require lenders to choose between going after the borrower or taking repossession, but not both. The term was widely used in the United Kingdom during the economic recession between 1991 and 1996, and in Hong Kong between 1998 and 2003, which led to increased unemployment and a decline in property prices, which in turn led to an increase in repossessions by banks and building societies of properties worth less than the outstanding debt.
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