Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) Gets Revamp From Obama in the SF Bay Area

Posted by Jason Wheeler | Fully Follow Me | Subscribe

The Home Affordable Refinance Program HARP is alive and well in the SF Bay Area. Most lenders will go up to 110% of your homes current value however we work with several lenders that will allow for up to 125% of the homes value.

Now the HARP 2.0 Program for Saving Underwater Homeowners has no limits.  Here is proof on a file that was approved on 6/21/2012 with a High Loan To Value Ratio of 284%

President Barack Obama announced a set of new rules Monday designed to make it easier for homeowners to refinance their mortgages even if they owe more than their home is worth.

Bay Area lawmakers had pushed hard for the changes, which eliminate some fees and ease rules on refinancing home loans owned by the government-controlled mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. For more than a year, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-California) has been pushing legislation that would force Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to help people reduce the amount they owe on their mortgage.

In a statement Monday, Boxer said she was “very pleased” with the new changes and would urge the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which regulates Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, “to move swiftly to assure that these new policies will help as many homeowners as possible.”

President Obama threw a lifeline to some underwater homeowners Monday in announcing his administration will revamp a program to refinance homes with mortgages greater than their current values.

“This will help a lot more homeowners refinance at lower rates,” Obama said, speaking in a modest neighborhood in Las Vegas, a city walloped by foreclosures. The president said he would do “everything in my power to help stabilize the housing market.”

The plan will streamline and expand the existing Home Affordable Refinance Program, or HARP, to make it easier to use with fewer fees, broader eligibility and no limit on how far underwater a home can be. The program so far has helped about 894,000 homeowners, far shy of the projected 5 million when it was rolled out two years ago.

Underwater homeowners who qualify will be able to take advantage of today’s bargain-basement interest rates, which are around 4 percent. Since many are now stuck with much higher interest rates, they should save several hundred dollars a month by refinancing.

“This will help a lot more homeowners refinance at lower rates,” Obama said, speaking in a modest neighborhood in Las Vegas, a city walloped by foreclosures. The president said he would do “everything in my power to help stabilize the housing market.” Read more form the San Francisco Chronicle on this

We will see how long it takes for banks to start implementing or if they even will implement these new rules for stressed home owners. So far the HARP Home Affordable Refinance Program has not helped as many Bay Area Home owners that is was designed for.