HARP II (HOME AFFORDABLE REFINANCE) CHANGES
Changes were announced last week for HARP II (Home Affordable Refinance). I am including a link to the FannieMae website. It details the changes and has a Q&A section that is worth bookmarking. Many of us will need to refer to it frequently.
How will the HARP II changes affect those seeking to refinance a home mortgage?
There are several changes, some won't go into effect right away, and as always, it will vary somewhat from lender to lender.
For instance, a big change is lifting the limit on the LTV (loan to value) of the property. The first mortgage was limited to 105% LTV on HARP I. On the downside this change is not widely available until March 2012.
Current servicers will have the ability to do manual underwrites vs using automated underwriting.
The onerous LLPA's (loan level price adjustments) are a little less onerous with this change. The good news is that this goes into effect immediately. For instance the credit adjustment for a score of 620 was 3 POINTS prior to this change. Those with better scores won't see as much improvement, but those with lower scores will see the maximum for this adjustment .750%.
Total LLPA is limited to 2 points now. The LLPA changes will allow more people to refinance. Previously by the time the LLPA's were calculated it simply was too costly to justify a refinance. I will be going back through my refinance opportunities for Northern Kentucky to see if some are now more doable.
If I had a genie lamp and my wish(es), I would have wished for no loan level price adjustments if the loan received automated approval and I would wish any secondary mortgages be automatically subordinated, Period! For now, we have somewhat of an improvement. Check out the changes and all 100 Q&A's below.
For now, we'll see how this unfolds, what lenders will acutally do with it, etc. Anyone who has considered refinancing previously and determined it was not worthwhile, just may want to check in again to see how things have changed for them.
https://www.efanniemae.com/sf/mha/mharefi/pdf/refinancefaqs.pdf
