Staying true to my blogger pledge I am writing today about something pretty exciting in the mortgage industry. The HARP program a part of the Making Home Affordable program put out by the Obama administration and introduced by the Federal Housing Finance Agency or (FHFA and the Treasure Department, has been around for awhile but limited due to the strict guidelines with only 900,000 borrowers refinancing through this program since April of 2009 when it started. That is a large number but clearly there are millions more that need help and this program falls short for too many homeowner’s in my opinion. The administration is listening however and some changes were announced in Oct of 2011 to revamp the HARP 2.0 program to help an addition couple million underwater homeowners in the US. Guidelines such as Loan to Value (LTV), income requirement and home appraisals are be waived so these homeowners can refinance with our current low rates.
Mortgage lender across the company are gearing up for this change and implementing these enhancements. Part of the delay in getting this rolled out is the new LTV requirement allowing up to 125% LTV and some unlimited LTVs to be built into the Fannie Mae (DU) and Freddie Mac (LP) electronic underwriting systems. This is expected to be completed in March 2012.
Some of the basic guidelines are;
1. You must have taken out a loan that is owned by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac
You can check to see if you loan is owned by either at their easy to use websites
Just fill in your info, it takes about 30 seconds.
www.fanniemae.com/loanlookup/
https://ww3.freddiemac.com/corporate/
2. You must also be current on your mortgage and have NO late payment within the last 6 months
3. You may only have 1 late payment in the past 12 months
I am always available to answer any questions and help you with your financing needs.
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