HARP 2 actually works and promises to help thousands of home owners. Wonder of wonders the government has made a program that will actually help underwater home owners who have lost market value. When was the last time you could say that a government program actually works the way they wanted it to? Don’t be confused by who services your loan, that’s who sends you the bill each month, it’s who holds your loan that’s important. So look it up, see if Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac owns your loan by using the links below. Did you think you would miss out on these low rates, again? Have you tried to refinance and couldn’t because you didn’t have any equity? Did your second mortgage prevent you from refinancing? Did your mortgage insurance company say no to your refinance? Has your home lost market value? Is your mortgage balance over market value by more than 105%? Has this affected your credit score so now you’re below 620? If you looked into HARP before but were the fees to high? Did the lender add on “loan level price adjustments” so that the closing costs were bloated? So that the new payment wasn’t lower than the original or so close that it didn’t matter. Was the new mortgage balance so high it just didn’t make sense. Were the low rates they offered you not the one offered in the ad? The new HARP 2 program will help thousands of home owner refinance and take advantage historically low rates. The old HARP 1 program didn’t address the many problems of negative equity mortgage insurance, second mortgages and low balled appraisals. But now the new HARP 2 program fixes these and many other problems. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have been working with the mortgage insurance companies (MI). The MI companies know that if the borrower is allowed to refinance they will be in a better position to keep making payment. The same strategy works for second mortgage holders. The old HARP program stopped at 105% of market value but HARP 2 doesn’t. But with the real estate values falling so fast that many lost 25-50% of the value of their homes so the 105% limit stopped many from refinancing. Well here are the high points of HARP 2.
- MI (mortgage insurance) is now transferable. New insurance can be issued by any provider.
- The is no cap on the loan to value so appraisals will not be needed in most cases. These means market value doesn’t matter.
- Closing costs or loan fees have been lower and set. No add-ons euphemistically called “loan level price adjustments”.
- Your loan must be held by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac and originated before May 2009.
- You must have made the last 6 payments on time and have no more than 1 late in the last 12 months.
- The program has been extended to end of 2013.
