Today, October 24, 2011, The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) announced that home owners who are current on their home loan may be able to take advantage of the historically low interest rates, regardless of how much their houses have dropped in value,
By taking advantage of today’s low interest rates Ventura County home owners who owe more on their home than their home is worth will be able to reduce the balance owed much faster.
The new FHFA program will:
- Eliminate some refinancing fees for some borrowers and will lower fees for other borrowers.
- Eliminating the need for a new property appraisal.
- Extend the FHFA until December 31, 2013.
The extended FHFA program applies to home owners whose home loans were issued before June 2009.
Other eligibility requirement for this enhanced HARP program are as follows:
- Your existing home loan must be owned or guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.
- Your existing home loan previously was not refinanced under HARP.
- Your existing home loan- to-value (LTV) ratio must be more than 80%.
- Your existing home loan must be current with no late payments in the past 6 months and no more than one late payment in the past 12 months.
New federal guidelines for the HARP changes should be released to mortgage lenders and servicers by November 15, 2011.
