President Obama's $75 Billion Making Home Affordable housing stimulus program will assist as many as 9 million homeowners by either making their monthly mortgage payments more affordable, or by stemming foreclosure.

The  (HARP) has been designed to complement Making Home Affordable by helping

homeowners who have not been delinquent on their monthly mortgage payments, but are still unable to refinance and take advantage of the historically low mortgage rates due to the declining home values, thus raising their current loan-to-value (LTV) over 80%. HARP Loan  will be able to help millions of Americans save on their monthly mortgage payments, regardless if their home has lost value..

 

Fannie Mae's DU Refi Plus™ and Freddie Mac's Relief Refinance Mortgage are the two mortgage refinance programs that will ultimately make HARP loans a success.

HARP loans will allow the flexibility necessary to make the refinance process quicker and more cost-effective for both the borrower and the lender. All HARP loans require less documentation for underwriting, and some HARP loans will not require an appraisal.

 

 To qualify for the HARP loan program, the following criteria must be met:

 

• Property can be 1 to 4 units for a primary residence or investment property (second homes must be 1-unit)
• Existing mortgage loan must be owned by either Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac
• Monthly Mortgage Payments must be up-to-date
• Loan-to-value (LTV) must be no more than 105%
• Refinance loan improves the borrower's position

 

The HARP loan program ends in June 2010