Hawryluk

For the most part, it seems, not that much.

“In the big picture, it’s business as usual,” said Val Hawryluk, manager of Silverdale’s Eagle Home Mortgage.

“It’s still a great time to buy,” agreed Ryan Christian, branch manager of Countrywide Home Loans’ Bremerton office. “We’re pretty fortunate in this area.”

The term “subprime” refers to high risk mortgage loans granted to individuals who otherwise may not have qualified for a more standard, “A paper” loan. The housing rush over the last few years in many parts of the country, along with a prevailing, “everyone should own a home,” attitude led some mortgage companies, purposefully or accidentally, to grant an overwhelming number of these high-risk loans.

But high-risk loans are, as the name implies, at a higher risk of foreclosure, and now, with foreclosures mounting across the country, a number of companies whose focus was subprime loans are failing quite publicly. Other major lenders, including Washington Mutual, are feeling some of the financial heat from failing subprime loans, but are not in any real danger of going out of business.

Why is this area of mortgage lending floundering so badly?

“When you get into the subprime market there were huge abuses,” said Hawryluk. “Putting someone in a home they can’t afford is not in their best interest.”

Fortunately for this area, none of the local mortgage lenders have been seriously affected by this current subprime crisis. But even if, like Eagle, those lenders were never in the subprime market in the first place, they are still paying attention.

“It’s going to affect everybody,” said Christian, “everybody’s re-evaluating in general. Lending guidelines will tighten.”

“We have to go back and be moral bankers,” said Hawryluk. “Overall it will be good for the industry.”

The subprime brouhaha, combined with a minor slowing of Kitsap’s previously red hot real estate market, is ushering in a new caution among homeowners, leading some to re-finance instead of sell, and others to re-think their real estate investment strategies.

“There’s been quite a bit of equity stripping over the last few years,” said Hawryluk. “People are now more concerned.”

“Over the last four months there’s been an increase in re-financing over purchasing,” said Christian.

But overall the local real estate market is healthy, which means the local mortgage lending industry is healthy, as well.

“Homes are on the market a bit longer, but it’s still lower than the national average,” said Christian. “There’s always going to be a need to put people in homes.”.