Tag Archives: HARP

In the third quarter of this year, 29 percent of borrowers who refinanced opted for a shorter loan term, while only 3 percent chose a mortgage with a longer term, according to data from Freddie Mac. Most borrowers—68 percent—decided to maintain the same term on their loan.

Even though President Obama and Governor Romney were criticized for evading housing issues when running for president, Clear Capital asserts the ""sprint"" in housing still spoke positively for Obama and assisted him in his recent re-election. But, now that Obama has won a second term, his administration is charged with leading phase two of the housing recovery, and this will happen by collaborating with the industry to reduce regulatory uncertainty, according to a Clear Capital report.

In September, the nation's delinquency rate suddenly spiked 7.7 percent from August, according to data from Lender Processing Services (LPS). The data provider explained the surge in its recent Mortgage Monitor report for September. For one, first time delinquencies increased by about 200,000 from the month before as more borrowers rolled into 30 day delinquency status. Despite the increase, other numbers were still down. Foreclosure starts hit their lowest level since September 2007 and were down 27.9 percent yearly.

The authenticity of this year's recovery may still be in question, but according to Freddie Mac's Economic and Housing Market Outlook for October, the housing sector is showing strength unmatched in previous years. Over the past several years, housing has either hurt or done little to help GDP. ""However, now we're seeing housing resuming its traditional role of leading the recovery charge and once again being the bright spot in the economy,"" said Frank Nothaft, VP and chief economist for Freddie Mac.

Following FHFA's report on HARP refinances in August, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods (KBW) released its own analysis of the data and expressed anticipation for an even greater increase in non-HARP refinance activity. KBW explained FHFA data on HARP volume showed a 2.6 percent month-over-month increase in August, while non-HARP GSE refinance activity was up 23.6 percent.

Nearly 99,000 homeowners refinanced their mortgages in August through the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP), the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) said Tuesday. Since the beginning of this year, when a broader group of borrowers were made eligible for the program, the federal government's HARP initiative has put 618,217 homeowners with loans owned by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac into new mortgages with lower interest rates. According to FHFA, HARP is on target to reach a million borrowers in 2012.

It was no surprise when mortgage rates dropped in the weeks following the Fed's announcement that it would purchase $40 billion of agency mortgage-backed securities (MBS) each month until the labor market shows substantial improvement. Even with the record-low mortgage rates seen today, refinancing numbers are still not as high as expected. CoreLogic and Capital Economics highlighted different factors for the lack of refinancings in separate reports.

Rep. Jim Costa (D-Fresno) introduced a House companion for the Responsible Homeowner Refinancing Act, which seeks to cut through red tape in homeowner refinancing to make the option more broadly available.

The continuation of improvements in the housing sector and servicer performance were a key focus in the Obama Administration's housing scorecard and Making Home Affordable Program report. Maintaining its tone from previous months, the Obama administration's housing scorecard said data on the housing market continues to show the market is strengthening, but still fragile. Larger servicers participating in the Making Home Affordable Program were also described as continuing to show improvement.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac new representations and warranty guidelines for lenders Tuesday to clarify lenders' risk regarding repurchase claims and define steps lenders can take to challenge repurchase claims they feel are without grounds. Under the new guidelines, if a loan is current for 36 consecutive months, lenders ""will be relieved of certain repurchase obligations,"" according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency, regulator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.