President Obama’s State of The Union Address last night proposed a plan to help save you $3,000 a year by clearing mortgage refinancing roadblocks. How the President plans to do this remains unclear. The President plans on giving any “responsible” homeowner access to today’s historically low refinance mortgage rates, which recently dipped below 4 percent with the best mortgage companies.
HARP 2.0 Is Coming
President Obama’s Administration hasn’t explained how they intend to do this. Based on the President’s remarks it sounds a lot like the changes he made to Home Affordable Refinance Program December of last year.
The President overhauled the HARP program late last year to eliminate the Loan to Value requirement. Under the old program, your loan balance could not be more than 125% of your home’s value. HARP is seen as a failure by most due to this requirement keeping the program out of reach of most homeowners that needed the help.
The new HARP program is still not available as of this writing; banks are still implementing the changes and loans should be available early March 2012.
Congress has yet to pass any legislation regarding the Home Affordable Refinance Program as it was created and modified by executive order. The President pledged to send legislation to Congress; however, whether or not any bill the President proposes makes it through the house and senate is unclear.
If you’re considering mortgage refinancing with one of today’s best mortgage lenders like Amerisave you can learn more about avoiding unnecessary fees and markup by checking out my free Underground Mortgage Videos.
My name is Rob Regehr and I’m a personal finance writer with a chip on my shoulder for banks and brokers that take advantage of my friends and neighbors.
