For homeowners that are upside down on their mortgage and want to refinance their mortgages, the details of Home Affordable Refinance Program 2 have come into focus.
HARP 2 is a liberalized revision of the Home Affordable Refinance Program. HARP’s goal was to allow homeowners to refinance their loans…
Even if they owed more than their homes were currently worth.
Millions of homeowners are in this predicament because their homes lost value in the bursting of the housing bubble.
What Is the Home Affordable Refinance Program?
HARP was introduced in 2009, and it was designed to help homeowners with mortgages owned by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. The program lets borrowers refinance at up to 125 percent of their homes’ current values.
For example, under HARP, if you owed $125,000 on a house that was now worth $100,000, you could qualify for a HARP refi, because your loan was 125 percent of the home’s value. But if you owed more than 125 percent of the home’s value, you were out of luck.
That 125 percent loan-to-value limit has been ELIMINATED under HARP 2. Under new rules, there is no loan-to-value limit on HARP refis — at least, for borrowers who have fixed-rate mortgages.
The elimination of the loan-to-value limit is the biggest change under HARP 2.
The Home Affordable Refinance Program- How It Works
Here is a rundown of HARP 2′s guidelines…
• The program is for borrowers whose mortgages are owned by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, and who got their loans before May 2009.
• HARP had been scheduled to expire at the end June 2012; HARP 2 extends the expiration to the end of 2013.
• There is no loan-to-value cap anymore for borrowers who now have fixed-rate mortgages.
• For borrowers with ARMs, the loan-to-value cap remains 105 percent.
• Borrowers can qualify for HARP 2 refis if they have paid on time for the last six months and have no more than one 30-day late payment in the last 12 months. Originally, HARP didn’t allow any delinquencies in the last 12 months.
• Fees have been reduced. Lenders are fond of adding fees to loans that have an added smidgen of risk. Fannie and Freddie call these fees “loan level price adjustments,” and the charges easily can climb to 2 percent of the loan amount on HARP refis.
Under HARP 2, the fees are reduced to zero percent on loans for 20 years or fewer, and 0.75 percent for mortgages for more than 20 years and for ARMs.
• If a borrower is not currently paying Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI or MI) then they will not have to pay it with the new loan, conversely, if they are paying it now, they will pay the same percentage with the new loan until the loan to value (LTV) reaches 80%.
Generally speaking, the changes go went into effect December 1st, 2011.
Regulators and analysts expect HARP 2 to result in 1 million more refis than would have closed under HARP, with an average loan balance of $150,000 to $175,000.
For more information on the Home Affordable Refinance Program, simply give me a call or an email…
Chris Colburn
Innovative Lending
720-837-7044
