Hey there, underwater borrowers: Want a refi?
You still need a loan that was bought or guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. (Don't know if it was? Ask your lender. Or check here for Fannie and here for Freddie.)
Zillow, the real estate information site, estimated yesterday that 29 percent of Baltimore-area homeowners are prime candidates for the program because they owe between 80 percent and 125 percent of their homes' value on their conforming first mortgages. That's 151,000 homeowners. But Zillow can't say how many meet the Fannie/Freddie requirement. (That's not publicly available information, the company says.)
These figures are up from the 113,000 (or 22 percent) of metro-area homeowners with conforming mortgages who owe between 80 and 105 percent of their home values.
The number of potentially eligible folks is higher nationwide: 36 percent of conforming-loan borrowers now and 26 percent under the original rules, Zillow estimates.
But apparently-eligible and actually-eligible are very different things, as the original rules of the program prove. Bloomberg reports that Fannie and Freddie have refinanced 80,000 mortgages under those guidelines, a tiny fraction of the participation the feds hoped for. And 60,000 of those had loan-to-value ratios of 80 percent or less. Mortgage professionals say it's tough for borrowers to qualify.
Has anyone out there tried to refinance under the older rules? I'm curious to know how it went.
Comments
I refinanced under the old rules. The problem is you are at the mercy of your current lender and you can only move at their speed. There is no shopping around with this. You have to refinance with your existing lender which means they have no real motivation to hurry. When I contacted my lender in Mid-March about my eligibility they placed me on a waiting list. It wasn't until the end of April that they finally were ready to take my App. And because my lender was Countrywide I encountered even more delays due to the BoA takeover. I finally closed on the refinance last week. It was well worth it but the time it takes is problematic. For 5 weeks I was waiting for them to contact me praying that rates wouldn't go up.You can't lock in while you are on the waiting list.
Posted by: Marc | July 3, 2009 11:57 PM
Mr. President why are the banking,and loan company not making loans as you promised they would do for the american people we are all hurting and not getting any help. Time for them to answer to you for not helping us the little people that keep them in business, maybe we should boycott their business. Check http://obamamortgage2009.blogspot.com/2009/03/obamas-mortgage-modification-do-you.html#comments
Posted by: jofabian | July 4, 2009 1:44 AM
I completed my refinance through the HARP program 10 days ago. It took about 6 weeks from my initial phone call to closing. I went from a 6.5% interest only loan to a 5% 30-year fixed. The loan is 98% LTV. It is true that you have to use your existing lender, but I didn't feel like they were slow rolling me. Overall, I had a favorable experience.
Posted by: Ed | July 4, 2009 10:01 AM
Thanks for sharing your experiences, folks. Anyone else want to chime in?
Posted by: Jamie Smith Hopkins | July 4, 2009 10:16 AM
Marc - your thoughts are somewhat correct. To sum up, I'm a broker (I know what you're thinking - high rates, high fees, bad service). You don't have to go directly to your current lender for this. Plenty of brokers like myself have equal access to these programs (and, you won't deal with the Countrywide/BOA BS that you did). I have saved more than one deal from these lenders. I get them done quicker, and you can get ahold of me after 5 PM.
Posted by: Chuck Michael | July 14, 2009 6:17 PM