The Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) was included in the Helping Families Save Their Homes Act of 2009 which was signed into law by the President on May 20, 2009. The program’s objective is to help those who owe more than their home is worth with an opportunity to refinance their homes.

This allows borrowers to refinance up to 200% of the value of their home without adding any Mortgage Insurance.  See if you meet the qualifications below.

• To be eligible, you must have a mortgage owned or guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac and sold to those agencies on or before May 31, 2009. You can determine whether you qualify for this program and whether the loan was guaranteed by or sold to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac through the links to these pages, which are provided below…

Fannie Mae: http://www.fanniemae.com/loanlookup/
Freddie Mac: https://ww3.freddiemac.com/corporate/

 (It should be noted that while these links will help you determine whether your loan is eligible to be refinanced, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will not help you determine whether you qualify for the refinance.)

• The current loan-to-value (LTV) ratio on the mortgage must be greater than 80 percent.
•  Having a mortgage that was previously refinanced under the program disqualifies the homeowner from the program, unless it is a Fannie Mae loan that was refinanced under HARP from March-May, 2009.
•  The homeowner cannot have missed any mortgage payments in the past six months and cannot have had more than one missed payment in the past 12 months.

If you would like to lower your payments, pay off your mortgage more quickly, or move to a safe fixed rate from an adjustable rate mortgage, you are advised to make this contact quickly, while the program will be around until December 31, 2013.

Starwest Mortgage Corporation offers a unique No Closing Cost program option for the HARP program. Once you have determined your eligibility, contact us or Apply Online to get started right away!