About Government Refinance and Home Purchase Programs

In early April of 2012 the FHA will be dramatically increasing their upfront and monthly mortgage insurance premiums. These increases will affect all new FHA purchase loans, conventional-to-FHA refinances, and refinances from one FHA loan to another FHA loan (called FHA streamlines) when the current FHA loan is less than three years old. If you have an FHA loan that you got after April of 2009 contact us right away in the sidebar to look into dramatically reducing your interest rate through the FHA streamline program before the new higher fees kick in. After April 9, 2012 it will be virtually impossible to streamline an FHA loans that is less than three years old.

For FHA loans that are more than three years old there is a new program that was just announced that is extremely beneficial. It allows FHA streamlines of those older FHA loans at virtually no costs and without increasing mortgage insurance fees. While the April 9 deadline on FHA streamlines does not apply to FHA loans that are from April of 2009 or older, contact us in the sidebar if you have one of these older FHA loans as well to learn more about that terrific new program that was just announced.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac officially began accepting HARP 2.0 loans this week. On the ground just a handful of authorized lenders have begun testing the waters with the new program. Some lenders are allowing refinances above the 125% loan to value. Other lenders are allowing mortgage insurance to transfer for the first time. But the reality is that the adoption of HARP 2.0 is tentative at best so far. The general trend early on is that borrowers with conventional loans backed backed by Fannie Mae will have more luck than borrower with conventional loans backed by Freddie Mac. The hope is that over time more and more lenders will more aggressively adopt the new program but only time will tell. Contact us in the sidebar to learn more about the HARP 2.0 program or the other government-backed refinance programs that are available.

President Obama had some terrific news this morning pertaining to Americans who currently have FHA loans. FHA loans that were originated prior to June of 2009 will now be allowed to streamline to a much lower interest rates WITHOUT adding a large upfront FHA mortgage insurance fee and without increasing the monthly mortgage insurance fee. This means that streamlining your FHA loan should be an absolute no-brainer if you are in that pre-June-09 category. Contact us in the sidebar now to learn more about this new FHA streamline program.

For FHA loans originated after May 2009 the options are more limited and the clock appears to be ticking. The FHA is planning on significantly increasing its mortgage insurance fees on all FHA loans originated after April 9, 2012. So if you have an FHA loan at a rate of 5% or higher that you got after May of 2009 contact us in the sidebar ASAP as well to see if you can streamline to a better rate before the pending FHA mip rate increase this April.

Note: If you don’t have an FHA loan there are programs available for borrowers with conventional loans or VA loans as well.

Despite some daily ups and downs, interest rates on most government backed mortgages remain at or near rates that have not been seen in the US in the last 50 years. Rates on FHA and VA loans have been slightly lower than the rates on conventional Fannie/Freddie loans but all are shockingly low as of late. If you have a 30-year fixed interest rate at 5% or higher or if you have an adjustable rate mortgage (ARM) contact us in the sidebar to learn more about the programs and rates that are available this week.