Today's release of the Federal Housing Finance Agency News Release suggests that more borrowers will have the opportunity to lower their interest rate without concern for home values. The reuqirements include:
1) the loan is currently held by either FNMA or Freddie Mac and was purchased by them on or before May 31,2009. you can determine if your mortgage qualifies by going to http://FannieMae.com/loanlookup or https://www.FreddieMac.com/corporate. If your loan closed before the cut off date, qualification will still depend on when the loan was purchased and a mortgage broker would be able to look up the actual purchase date.
2) the loan to value is over 80% - the previous cap of 125% of the appraised value has been removed for fixed rate loans.
3) fico limits still exist but the impact on the interest rate has been reduced.
4) advantages for selecting a shorter term for the new mortgage in hopes that you will eventually build equity.
The expiration of this program is now December 31, 2013.
I suggested that this program falls flat because they have excluded approximately 900,000 homeowners that have refinanced once under the old HARP program and now may still have above market interest rates and are still struggling. The cost to include these homeowners would be minimal (by government standards) and be a way to thank those homeowners for keeping up with mortgage payments. Instead, because you took the first offer, you miss out on the better offer. How many potential HARP refinances will now sit back and wait for the next offer which will have to be even better?????
So what's new???
Have a great day!
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