An article in Sunday’s Los Angeles Times suggests that lenders in markets with rising property values such as California are looking to increase their subprime lending. While current mortgage interest rates are around 3.5%, these subprime loans comes with interest rates starting at 7.95% and going up from there. As with the old subprime products, high fees are common for this next generation of subprime loans. So what’s different? Most new subprime loans require much higher down payments and evidence of an ability to pay.
