HARP Share of Refinancing Slipped in September

Nearly three-quarters of a million households have refinancedrnthrough the Home Affordable Refinancing Program since the program’s parametersrnwere changed late last year according to a report released Wednesday by thernFederal Housing Finance Agency.  Thernprogram is on track to serve nearly twice the number of homeowners as it did inrn2011 under the old program rules.</p

While refinancing overall was up by over 9,000 loans inrnSeptember compared to August, the number of HARP loans declined.  The report says that 90,789 homeownersrnrefinanced through HARP in September compared to 98,885 in August.  The September figure is 21 percent of therntotal of 431,342 refinances done through the two GSEs during that period whilernHARP had a 23.5 percent share of refinancing in August.   FanniernMae was responsible for 52,975 of the September HARP total and Freddie Macrnrefinanced 37,814 loans.  </p

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About half of the HARP loans made in September (45,633) hadrnLTV ratios between 80 to 105 percent with the remainder close to evenly dividedrnbetween loans with LTVs between 105 percent and 125 percent (21,930) and thosernwith LTVs over 125 percent (23,226).   rnSince the cap was removed 141,696 borrowers have refinanced loans withrnLTVs over 125 percent.</p

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One of the revisions made to the HARP program in 2011 was torneliminate some risk-based fees for borrowers who refinance into shorter termrnmortgages.  In September 19 percent ofrnHARP borrowers took advantage of this incentive by refinancing into 15 or 20rnyear loans compared to 18 percent in August.</p

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