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HARP 2.0 Continues to Succeed Where 1.0 Fell Short

by devteam June 13th, 2013 | Share

Nearly one-half million homeownersrnrefinanced their mortgages in March according to the RefinancernReport released by the FederalrnHousing Finance Agency (FHFA) today. Of the 461,652 refinancesrnclosed through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the GSEs) in March, 98,982rnor about 21 percent were completed through the Home AffordablernRefinance Program (HARP) for a total of 2.46 million HARPrntransactions since the program began in April 2009.</p

In thernfirst quarter of 2013 the GSEs refinanced about 1.4 million</bmortgages. About 22 percent or 300,000 of these were HARP loans,rnabout the same percentage of HARP refinances in the fourth quarter ofrn2012.</p

Of therntotal 2.46 million HARP transactions, roughly half, or 1.37 million haverntaken place under the revised HARP guidelines put in place at the endrnof 2011. Those guidelines eliminated the prior 125 percent loan-to-value (LTV) cap on HARP mortgages and during the firstrnquarter of 2013 22 percent of loans refinanced through the programrnhad an LTV greater than 125. During the quarter 45 percent of thernHARP loans had LTV ratios greater than 105 percent. </p

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Anotherrnrevision to the HARP guidelines provided incentives to borrowers tornreduce the term of their new loans from that of their old, typicallyrn30 year, mortgages. Thus far in 2013 17 percent of HARP borrowersrnhave opted for 15- or 20-year loans.</p

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TotalrnGSE refinancing in March was down about 2,000 loans from Februaryrnwith Fannie Mae totals dropping from 294,302 loans to 264,778 whilernFreddie Mac transactions rose from 169,501 to 196,874. Fannie Mae’srnshare of HARP refinancing was down a slight 3,000 loans while FreddiernMac’s HARP volume increased by about 4,000.</p

Thusrnfar in 2012 HARP refinances have represented 63rnpercent of total refinances in Nevada and 53 percent of totalrnrefinances in Florida and underwater borrowers have made up 64rnpercent or more of total HARP volume in those two states and Arizona.rn

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About the Author

devteam

Steven A Feinberg (@CPAsteve) of Appletree Business Services LLC, is a PASBA member accountant located in Londonderry, New Hampshire.

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