The FederalrnHousing Finance Agency (FHFA) said in its Refinance Report Tuesday thatrn97,738 or 21 percent of the refinances were completed through the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP).   Both the number of HARP refinances and thernmarket share were virtually unchanged from January.  </p

Sincernthe HARP program was begun in April 2009 more than 2.3 million homeowners have usedrnit to refinance high loan-to-value (LTV) ratio or underwater mortgages.  Nearly 1.3 million of those refinances haverntaken place since the program was substantially revamped in late 2011. </p

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Borrowersrnwith LTV ratios greater than 105 percent accounted for 45 percent of the HARPrnloans in February and 22 percent had LTV ratios over 125 percent.  The latter group of homeowners were notrneligible for the program before the LTV cap was eliminated by those 2011rnprogram revisions.  </p

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Another revision to the program created incentives forrnborrowers to refinance into shorter term mortgages in order to rebuild theirrnequity more quickly.  In February 18rnpercent of HARP refinances were for shorter-term 15- and 20-year mortgages,rntwice the percentage as just before the program changes.</p

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FHFA recently announced it has extended HARP for two morernyears and will soon launch a nationwide campaign to educate and encouragernhomeowners to learn about HARP eligibility requirements. HARP was set to expirernDec. 31 of this year.

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