Thursday, March 12, 2009

Time to Arrange that Refi is Now


Before the Obama administration announced its housing plan, some members of Congress were lobbying for a government subsidy of 4 percent mortgages for homeowners who were current on their loans. But that proposal never made it into the plan. Rather, the administration has decided to focus on helping distressed borrowers more easily refinance or modify loans, with terms typically reflecting today’s market rates, now in the low 5-percent range for qualified borrowers
Stricter loan underwriting standards and declining property values could result in some homeowners becoming ineligible for the Obama administration’s “Making Home Affordable Refinance” program. As a result, many mortgage professionals are advising clients not to wait to refinance.
Refinances also are taking longer to complete. A refinance that used to take three to four weeks to process is now taking as long as six weeks.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's exactly what we did recently....got 4.75% on 625.5 (30yr fixed) and then had to take HELOC for the rest...hoping that rates stay low for some time so we save vs our original 6%+ 30yr fixed. our house was appraised for 90k under our purchase price and this is a nice part of 94087!

Anonymous said...

Lenders are notorious for conservative appraisals on refinances.