HARP Program Expanded to Help More Homeowners

May 6, 2012 by  

The Federal Government has modified the HARP program to help more homeowners who may be underwater on their mortgages. Call us at (949) 2400-5892, or via email, for specifics that may apply to your home and mortgage, but there are a few restrictions, including these guidelines:

  • Your loans must have been purchased by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac prior to May 31, 2009, with an LTV ratio in excess of 80%.
  • No late payments during the previous 6 months, no more than one late during the last 12 months.
  • You must be current on your loan.

Here’s an excerpt from an article in the LA Times online:

Though it was announced by the Obama administration late last year, “HARP 2.0″ — the second version of the Home Affordable Refinance Program — will finally hit full stride around the middle of this month, when Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac finish tweaking their automated underwriting systems to accept applications, and lenders and mortgage insurance companies start handling large volumes of requests.

The revisions are crucial for owners who have outstanding mortgage balances in excess of 125% of the current resale values of their homes. Under the second version of HARP, there is no upper limit on permissible loan-to-value ratios (LTVs). You can owe twice or even three times the value of your home and still qualify for a refinancing at today’s low interest rates. The earlier version imposed a limit of 125%, which cut out millions of the hardest-hit victims of the real estate bust.

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Revised Mortgage Plan Designed to Help Struggling Borrowers

October 29, 2011 by  

By email this week, I received an overview of the recent changes to the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP). I have blended in with it some bullet points of my own:

  • The changes are effective December 1, 2011
  • The new rules targets homeowners who owe more than their homes are currently worth
  • Mortgage must be guaranteed by Government lenders, Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac
  • Mortgage must have been sold to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac on or before May 31, 2009
  • Payments must be current during the prior six months; no more than one late payment in the prior year
  • Homeowners can now refinance no matter how much they owe (eliminates the 125% rule that existed)
  • The changes eliminate appraisals and many underwriting requirements (in many cases)
  • The new rules include/mandate waivers of many expensive upfront fees

As you can tell, there is some fine print in this program. As a great starting point, call us at (949) 240-5892 to help you determine the market value of your Dana Point home.

Then call our friend, Mike Harper, at Alpine Mortgage, 949-769-7588, who has generously offered to help, to find out how these changes to the HARP program may help your ability to refinance your particular home and take full advantage of lower interest rates.

This is a PDF document on the Federal website that outlines the new rules in greater detail.

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Foreclosure v. Short Sale: Will a Short Sale Save Your Credit?

June 14, 2010 by  

Do you know of someone who is in default on their mortgage, or has lost a job and will soon be facing financial difficulties? Where should they turn for advice?

Call us first! And be cautious about internet “experts,” where scams abound and bad advice like this goes unchecked: “oh, just do a short sale without any harm to your credit.” But here’s an excerpt from the Minneapolis Star Tribune, by Kara McGuire, that reveals how foreclosures AND short sales can wreck credit.

“Both short sales and foreclosures are considered negative by the score, because our data shows us it’s very predictive of future credit risk,” said Tom Quinn, Fair Isaac Corp.’s vice president of FICO scores. “The claim that doing a short sale is not going to hurt your score is false. It’s inaccurate.”

Read the entire article on RISMedia.

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