The Federal Housing Finance Agency’s Home Affordable Refinance Program reached more than 3.4 million homeowners.
In the first quarter, over 19,000 homeowners refinanced their home through HARP, a program launched back in 2009, bringing the total number of homeowners who used the program to 3,400,543 since when the program started.
Although over 325,000 U.S. borrowers are still eligible for the program, it will expire at the end of this year. Borrowers who have a financial incentive to refinance, or “in-the-money” borrowers must meet certain HARP qualifications in order to refinance.
Some of the qualifications include:
- Must have a remaining mortgage balance of $50,000 or more
- Have a remaining term of at least 10 years
- Current mortgage interest rate must be at least 1.5% higher than market rates
Borrowers save an average of $2,400 per year using the HARP program.
FHFA will hold its final HARP outreach webinar on May 24, where it will be joined by representatives from Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Quicken Loans and Neighborworks America.
