Company: SFBC
Filing Date: 2025-03-18
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0001541119-25-000009
Chunk: 12

Company: Sound Financial Bancorp, Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-03-18
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1
Chunk 12
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 because loan indices may not respond perfectly to changes in market interest rates, upward adjustments on loans may occur more slowly than increases in our cost of interest-bearing liabilities, especially during periods of rapidly increasing interest rates. Because of these characteristics, future yields on adjustable-rate loans may not be sufficient to offset increases in our cost of funds.

We continue to offer our fully amortizing adjustable-rate loans with a fixed interest rate for the first one, three, five or seven years, followed by a periodic adjustable interest rate for the remaining term. Although adjustable-rate mortgage loans may reduce to an extent our vulnerability to changes in market interest rates because they periodically re-price, as interest rates increase, the required payments due from the borrower also increase (subject to rate caps), increasing the potential for default by the borrower. At the same time, the marketability of the underlying collateral may be adversely affected by higher interest rates. Upward adjustments of the contractual interest rate are also limited by our maximum periodic and lifetime rate adjustments. Moreover, the interest rates on most of our adjustable-rate loans do not adjust within the next year and may not adjust for up to ten years after origination. As a result, the effectiveness of adjustable-rate mortgage loans in compensating for changes in general interest rates may be limited during periods of rapidly rising interest rates.

At December 31, 2024, $29.4 million, or 10.9% of our one-to-four family residential portfolio consisted of nonowner-occupied loans, compared to $28.8 million, or 10.3% of our one-to-four family residential portfolio at December 31, 2023. At December 31, 2024, our average nonowner-occupied residential loan had a balance of $127 thousand. Loans secured by rental properties represent potentially higher risk. As a result, we adhere to more stringent underwriting guidelines which may include, but are not limited to, annual financial statements, a budget factoring in a rental income, cash flow analysis of the borrower as well as the net operating income of the property, information concerning the borrower’s expertise, credit history and profitability, and the value of the underlying property. In addition, these loans are generally secured by a first mortgage on the underlying collateral property along with an assignment of rents and leases. Of primary concern in nonowner-occupied real estate lending is the consistency of rental income of the property. Payments on loans secured by rental properties may depend primarily on the tenants’ continuing ability to pay rent to the property owner, the character of the