There was a pretty useful press release at the MakingHomeAffordable web site recently. It has a lot of information but here are a few highlights:
Actions Helping Homeowners Purchase Homes, Refinance and Modify Mortgages to More Affordable Payments, Prevent Foreclosures and Stabilize Communities
The Administration has:
* Launched a modification initiative to help homeowners reduce mortgage payments to affordable levels and to prevent avoidable foreclosures. Homeowners in active modifications are saving around $500 per month on average;
* Supported temporarily expanding the limits for loans guaranteed by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and FHA from previous limits up to $625,500 per loan to $729,750 to provide needed support to keep markets functioning during this crisis;
* Expanded refinancing flexibilities for the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans, particularly for borrowers with negative equity. Combined with historically low mortgage rates, this has helped more than four million American homeowners to refinance, saving an estimated $150 per month on average and more than $7 billion cumulatively in the past year;
* Launched a $23.5 billion Housing Finance Agencies Initiative which is helping more than 90 state and local housing finance agencies (HFAs) across 49 states provide sustainable homeownership and rental resources for American families;
* Supported the First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credit, and the subsequent extension and expansion of the credit to also assist move-up buyers, which has helped hundreds of thousands of responsible Americans purchase homes.
* Through the Recovery Act, provided over $5 billion in support for affordable rental housing through low-income housing tax credit programs and $2 billion in additional support for the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP), on top of the first round of $4 billion of NSP funds, to restore neighborhoods hardest-hit by concentrated foreclosures; and
* On February 19, 2010, announced the $1.5 billion HFA Hardest-Hit Fund for five state HFAs in the nation’s hardest-hit housing markets to design innovative, locally targeted foreclosure prevention programs. On March 29, 2010, we announced a $600 million expansion of that program for an additional five HFAs.
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