In his State of the Union address this evening President Obama announced plans for a new refinance program that is reportedly going to be targeted to borrowers who are having trouble taking advantage of the government-backed refinance programs already in place. We get the following from a WSJ article on the subject:
President Barack Obama called on Congress during Tuesday’s State of the Union address to approve new legislation that would give all homeowners who are current on their mortgages the opportunity to refinance at record low mortgage rates, officials said Tuesday.
Administration officials declined on Tuesday to outline the mechanics or costs of the program, and they said those details would be spelled out in the legislation in the coming days. “Responsible homeowners shouldn’t have to sit and wait for the housing market to hit bottom to get some relief,” Mr. Obama said. ” No more red tape. No more runaround from the banks.” …
Unlike the existing program, which was unveiled in 2009, the latest proposal wouldn’t limit such opportunities to borrowers whose loans are already backed by mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which guarantee about half of all outstanding loans.
While details on the new program are forthcoming, there are several very useful refinance programs already in place. Contact us in the sidebar to learn more about the available programs.
January 26th, 2012 at 11:12 am
This H.A.R.P. thing is a BIG JOKE! My husband & I have qualified for this since it began. I am to the point of aggrevation! We have NEVER! been late or missed a single morgage payment in 9yrs. We have taken every honest step to get every piece of information to the underwriter we get responses that we are closing this day & that day (dragging on) they need this, they neeed that. We will close this day again. We are only getting the run around, thats it. If we were not paying our mortgage, late all the time (as I mentioed we have never been late) or bankrupt I am sure it would get taken care of in a snap. We WANT TO PAY our mortgage! We are just asking for a lower interest rate. We qualify for this program & would like to be apart of it. Wells Fargo (our Mortgage holder) should be turned in to the Better Business Bureu due to their lack of sorry business. I said it!
January 30th, 2012 at 11:46 pm
Agreed…Wells Fargo stinks. I have them too and was conned into a higher interest rate and combo of some debt and now cant get out of it. they told me if i wanted help, dont pay and we’ll help you. One lady told me “you’re the idiot paying the high interest rate, so don’t pay it and then we can help you!”. Great business practice there. BBB should shut these idiots down. i hope you get your refi and i hope the gov’t lets the programs go beyond fanny and freddy so i can get help too. good luck.
March 1st, 2012 at 8:50 pm
I have Citimortgage & they are just as bad as Wells Fargo & the rest. I also have NEVER missed or been LATE either. I’ve tried to work with Citimortgage but they always have excuses. I’m not a Fannie or Freddie or FHA according to Citi but the “Chain of Title Assessment” I had done on my home says I am. I can’t get any help in reducing my interest rate & thats all I want to do. IT JUST DOESN’T PAT TO PAY ON TIME. If I was in default, this would have already been taken care of.