{"id":377023,"date":"2010-03-01T19:00:16","date_gmt":"2010-03-02T00:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/firedoglake.com\/?p=68842"},"modified":"2010-03-01T19:00:16","modified_gmt":"2010-03-02T00:00:16","slug":"mortgage-modifications-part-2-is-harp-for-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/377023","title":{"rendered":"Mortgage Modifications Part 2: Is HARP for You?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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photo: Tattooed JJ via Flickr<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Is HARP for you?<\/p>\n

Not the beer, though it\u2019s yummy. I\u2019m talking about the \u201cHome Affordable Refinance Program\u201d which is designed for those who are current in their mortgage payments, but underwater in their home value and therefore unable to re-finance their mortgage to take advantage of today\u2019s lower interest rates.<\/p>\n

First of all, if you are current in your mortgage and not in danger of foreclosure, congratulations. You have managed to avoid one of the greatest causes of stress, anxiety and late night tears for you fellow Americans.<\/p>\n

HARP is set to expire in June of 2010, so if you qualify, and if you want to refi, you\u2019d better get crackin\u2019.<\/p>\n

How do you know if you qualify?<\/p>\n

After you finish reading this piece, trot over to www.makinghomeaffordable.gov<\/a> to get additional resources.<\/p>\n

But for now, let\u2019s see about the basics:<\/span><\/p>\n

1)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You must be current in your mortgage payments;<\/p>\n

2)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Must have the ability to pay the new mortgage payment amount;<\/p>\n

3) \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Your mortgage must owned or guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac (which eliminates a lot of folks, sorry);<\/p>\n

4)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The principle amount of your first mortgage cannot be more than 125% of your home\u2019s current value (this may also eliminate a lot of you who need help most);<\/p>\n

5)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The refi must improve either the affordability or sustainability of you mortgage situation (by sustainability they mean getting you out of fluctuating interest rates).<\/p>\n

HARP refi\u2019s differ from bank refi\u2019s in an number of ways.<\/p>\n

a)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You can refi for more than you house is worth, up to 125% of the value of the house;<\/p>\n

b)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 There are relaxed credit score requirements;<\/p>\n

c)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 They base the loan to value (LTV) analysis only on your first mortgage instead of all debt against the house;<\/p>\n

d)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You cannot use this refi to do debt consolidation (no lumping in your credit card debt).<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know how many of you out there fall into the narrow combination of circumstances that this Venn diagram of conditions imposes, but if you do, and you have either a high interest rate loan or an adjustable rate loan and would like to take advantage of the current market and get into a low fixed rate loan, HARP might be for you.<\/p>\n

So get busy; if you qualify and if HARP is advantageous to you, there’s only a few months left to take advantage of this program.<\/p>\n

Update, thanks to JediMom inthe comments:<\/p>\n

\n
\n

Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) acting director Ed DeMarco today announced the extension of the Home Affordable Refinance Program, (HARP) for an extra 12 months, until June 30, 2011.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Tags: Fannie Mae<\/a>, Freddie Mac<\/a>, HARP<\/a>, home ownership<\/a>, mortgage<\/a>, refinancing<\/a><\/p>\n

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photo: Tattooed JJ via Flickr Is HARP for you? Not the beer, though it\u2019s yummy. I\u2019m talking about the \u201cHome Affordable Refinance Program\u201d which is designed for those who are current in their mortgage payments, but underwater in their home value and therefore unable to re-finance their mortgage to take advantage of today\u2019s lower interest […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4350,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-377023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4350"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=377023"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377023\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}