Talk:Alt-A

What does it stand for

But what does "Alt-A" stand for? "Alternative" something? 76.28.10.62 (talk) 10:04, 1 April 2008 (UTC)cmg88

Alt-A means alternative to A rated. A rated by who? By Fannie. The article doesn't mention this, but Fannie had a form of automated underwriter which graded mortgages by factors such as the appraised value of the house, the type of house (i.e., condo? townhouse? detached), location of home (market), loan to value ratio, borrower's FICO score, the ratio of the borrower's mortgage payment (principal and interest, tax and insurance reserves) to the borrower's gross income, source of funds for downpayment (it used to be that the borrower had to prove that he or she was the sole source of the funds [no loans from parents, etc.]). The "best" mortgages got an "A" from the automated underwriter. Alt-A was a term coined for mortgages which were not graded "A" by the Fannie Mae (or later Freddie Mac) automatic rating system but were still considered creditworthy. The whole article should really be re-written. The term "alt-a" makes people think that "a" is some credit rating from Moody's or S&P. FrancisDane (talk) 15:35, 22 December 2011 (UTC)