Mortgage Prepayment Behavior in a Market with ARMs Only
Author
Start Page / End Page
Volume
Issue Number
Year
Publication
Jia He and Ming Liu
64 / 80
1
1
1998
International Real Estate Review
Abstract
A study on the prepayment behavior of Hong Kong mortgage loans is conducted. With all of the loans as adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs), we find that 1) Prepayment speeds up and then slows down as the mortgage seasons; 2) Prepayment speeds up as the rate markup decreases; 3) Prepayment speeds up as the interest rate increases; 4) Prepayment speeds up when the profitability ratio of the banks ( the prime-HIBOR spread) is higher; 5) Prepayment speeds up as the price of the property market falls; 6) Prepayment speed is faster for loans with a lower loan-to-value ratio; 7) Prepayment exhibits a seasonal pattern: people tend to prepay in the summer.