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Tag Archives: HARP

Administration Announces Refinance Program for Underwater Borrowers

It's official. The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) has unveiled a new, revamped government mortgage refinancing program. The initiative involves a series of rule changes to the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) to allow more underwater homeowners to reduce their mortgage debt by taking advantage of today's rock-bottom interest rates. Under the revised HARP guidelines, the 125 percent loan-to-value (LTV) ceiling has been removed, and risk-based fees have been adjusted.

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Senators Call for Immediate Action to Help Homeowners Refinance

Market watchers have their eyes peeled for word from Washington that officials will relax the rules of a government refinancing program to allow underwater homeowners with GSE-backed loans to take out new mortgages with lower interest rates. President Obama promised just over a month ago that a new and improved Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) would soon be unveiled, but lawmakers are growing impatient. A bipartisan group of senators has sent letters to the heads of four federal agencies calling for ""immediate"" action.

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Industry Calls for Expanded Refinance Program

At a hearing before a Senate subcommittee this week, witnesses urged Congress to help more underwater homeowners refinance their loans at current, record-low interest rates. The Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) allows underwater homeowners with mortgages backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to refinance their mortgages at lower interest rates. However, the program has helped fewer than 900,000 of the more than 10 million underwater homeowners in the country.

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Government Refi Program to Take Form of HARP Revamp

President Obama's speech introducing his new Jobs Act included a pledge to refinance millions of home mortgages. Documents released since then by the White House and a key housing regulator reveal that the government-led refi push will indeed center around an overhaul of the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP). The administration says it intends to remove the barriers that exist in the current program to allow more borrowers to qualify as long as they have a history of making their payments on time.

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Refinance Program for Underwater Borrowers Open Through Mid-2012

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) has pushed the cut-off date for the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) out by a year. HARP allows homeowners with a mortgage owned by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac who owe more than the home is worth obtain a new loan at today's lower interest rates. The program was originally set to expire on June 30, 2011. FHFA has now extended the program through June 30, 2012.

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GSEs’ Foreclosure Prevention Actions Double in One Year’s Time

The nation's two largest mortgage companies saw the number of actions carried out to prevent foreclosures on their loans more than double in 2010 when compared to 2009. Servicers of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans completed 946,305 foreclosure prevention workouts in 2010, according to data from the GSEs' regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA). In 2009, they completed 431,098. FHFA also stressed that the performance of recently modified loans has improved relative to loans modified in earlier periods.

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GSEs’ Foreclosures Outnumber Modifications More than 2 to 1 in Q3

For every home loan held by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that was modified during the third quarter, 2.3 loans were foreclosed on during the same period. The GSEs initiated foreclosure on 339,000 home mortgages during the July to September timeframe. Loan modifications completed in the quarter totaled 146,500, with the majority of those completed through non-HAMP programs. The two companies approved 29,500 short sales during the third quarter.

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Congressional Budget Office Lowers TARP Price Tag to $25B

Although economists say the country would be in far worse shape without it, the federal government's $700 billion bailout package approved by Congress in October 2008 was widely criticized at the time for the cost taxpayers would be forced to bear. That projected price tag, though, has been steadily declining as the financial sector has found firmer footing. The Congressional Budget Office now puts the cost of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) at just over 3 percent of the $700 billion initially allocated - $25 billion.

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Distressed Sales, Federal Programs Drive 20% Jump in Mortgage Fraud

Mortgage fraud has increased by more than 20 percent since fraud rates reached their lowest point in early 2009, according to CoreLogic. The company says higher risk, high-volume programs, including those offered by the Federal Housing Administration and the Treasury's Home Affordable Refinance Program, as well as REO and short sales accounted for much of the increase. All are areas where activity has risen sharply over short periods of time, or where safeguards are not squarely in place, CoreLogic says.

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GSEs’ Short Sales and Deeds-in-Lieu up 27% in Q2

Nearly 31,000 borrowers with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans forfeited their homes through a short sale or deed-in-lieu of foreclosure during the second quarter of this year. The figure represents a 27 percent increase over the previous three-month period. The GSEs also reported that their volume of permanent modifications under the administration's Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) increased 65 percent, but at the same time, foreclosure starts and foreclosure sales were also up by double digits.

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