In the United States, loan purpose is the underlying reason an applicant seeks a

loan In finance, a loan is the tender of money by one party to another with an agreement to pay it back. The recipient, or borrower, incurs a debt and is usually required to pay interest for the use of the money. The document evidencing the deb ...

mortgage A mortgage loan or simply mortgage (), in civil law (legal system), civil law jurisdictions known also as a hypothec loan, is a loan used either by purchasers of real property to raise funds to buy real estate, or by existing property owners t ...

. Lenders use loan purpose to make decisions on the risk and what

interest rate An interest rate is the amount of interest due per period, as a proportion of the amount lent, deposited, or borrowed (called the principal sum). The total interest on an amount lent or borrowed depends on the principal sum, the interest rate, ...

to offer. For example, if an applicant is refinancing a mortgage after having taken

cash In economics, cash is money in the physical form of currency, such as banknotes and coins. In book-keeping and financial accounting, cash is current assets comprising currency or currency equivalents that can be accessed immediately or near-i ...

out, the lender might consider that an increase in risk and increase the interest rate that is offered or add additional conditions. Loan purpose is important to the process of obtaining mortgages or business loans that are connected with specific types of business activities. Pertaining to

mortgages A mortgage loan or simply mortgage (), in civil law jurisdictions known also as a hypothec loan, is a loan used either by purchasers of real property to raise funds to buy real estate, or by existing property owners to raise funds for any pur ...

and their risk based pricing factors, the loan purpose factor is sub-categorized by purchase, rate and term refinance and cash-out refinance. Lenders assess that a purchase loan contains the least amount of risk and thus 'price' purchase loans most favorably (i.e. no

increase or a risk-based pricing improvement in the order of .25%). Rate and term refinances are priced similar to purchase loans, with no interest rate increase. Cash received by the borrower at closing may not exceed $2000 to maintain rate and term status. The purpose is, as the name implies, to reduce the interest rate, payment, and/or overall term of the mortgage. Cash-out refinances are deemed to have a higher risk factor than either rate & term refinances or purchases due to the increase in loan amount relative to the value of the

property Property is a system of rights that gives people legal control of valuable things, and also refers to the valuable things themselves. Depending on the nature of the property, an owner of property may have the right to consume, alter, share, re ...

. Risk-based pricing typically mandates a .25% to .5% increase in interest rate if a borrower needs to draw equity out of the subject property.

References

Mortgage industry of the United States Loans {{finance-stub

See also

References