January 19th Market Update: Revisiting some very important programs that will expire soon

Good Morning,

Interest rates are holding at the same level from last Wednesday. We’ve had a few good days for mortgage backed securities to offset the rising interest rates we saw last Thursday and Friday.

So, today I wanted to relook at a couple great refinance programs that are going to expire in June of this year. They are the Fannie Mae and the Freddie Mac Home Affordable Refinance programs. The key important piece of information about these programs in relation to the current market is that you are able to refinance at very low rates even if you owe more than your home is currently worth. It doesn’t matter if you have a first mortgage that is higher than your home value or if you have a combination of a first and second mortgage as long as the first mortgage doesn’t go higher than 125% of the value of your home. The caveat to these programs is that your mortgage has to be owned by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, which takes all of 2 minutes for me to check online for a client. Here’s the part many overlook. Let’s say you make your mortgage payments to Wells Fargo, or Bank of America or any other of numerous banks. This does not mean that your loan is not owned by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. It could very well still be with Wells Fargo and the like acting as the servicer for the larger lending companies. Anyone that feels stuck in their home and doesn’t want to sell owes it to themselves to take the 10 minutes to find out if they qualify and what their options would be. Once these programs expire, we will once again be back to the point where homeowners won’t be able to take advantage of today’s low rates without having equity in their home to qualify. This is an option that can help many people as long as they know about it so please share with your clients, friends and family.

Rates: 30 year fixed at 4.75% and the 15 year at 4.25%, FHA: 4.75%: As always rates change with individual credit scenarios and programs, with credit in the mid 700s and a 20% down payment these rates are what you should be

Matt

Matt Royer

Mortgage Consultant, CMC | Homes Mortgage

NMLS# 366970