The Administration has just announced a major expansion to the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) in an attempt to help more homeowners by enabling them to refinance high loan-to-value mortgage loans at current low interest rates. The changes are effective immediately and tens of thousands of homeowners will be eligible for this new program.
To qualify for the enhanced HARP, the existing mortgage loan of a borrower must be owned or guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac with a current loan-to-value between 80.00 and 150.00 percent. The homeowner must also be current on the loan at the time of the refinance and must not have had a late payment on the mortgage in the past six months or more than one late payment in the past 12 months.
The most important enhancement to this program is the removal of the loan-to-value ratio cap for eligible mortgages. Originally, any mortgage that exceeded 125% of the value of the property was not eligible. Now the loan can exceed 125% of the value. This change makes tens of thousands of homeowners eligible to refinance at today's record low interest rates. Even better, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have eliminated certain pricing adjustments to make the refinances even more attractive.
Want to know if you are eligible for this great new program? I can help you by finding out whether your current loan is held by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as well as reviewing all of the qualification criteria. If you are interested in this free, no obligation review, call me!