A petition to remove the securitization date with HARP 2.0 is making it’s way through social media. Currently, in order for a mortgage to qualify for a Home Affordable Refinance (HARP 2.0), the mortgage needs to have been securitized by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac prior to June 1, 2009. Securitization has nothing to do with when a loan closed and it often takes place weeks or sometimes months after closing.
Many home owners have felt burned by this cut-off date as they have no control over when Fannie or Freddie securitized their loan yet they’re being punished by not being allowed to use this program to refinance.
The petition is also asking the home owners who have already refinanced using the HARP program, to be allowed to “re-HARP” or refinance again under the HARP program.
Click here for more information about the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP).
Congress and the Obama Administration has been discussing the possibility of changing guidelines to the Home Affordable Refinance Program, including removing or extending the securitization date among other things. The revamped program, which may also be open to loans not securitized by Fannie or Freddie, has been referred to HARP 3.0 or #MyRefi.
The petition was created last week is trying to reach 25,000 signatures by February 8, 2013.
Under the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) The Director of The Federal Housing Finance Agency has authority to extend or eliminate the eligibility cutoff date. Currently the date is set as 5/31/09. Many responsible home owners are unable to take advantage of the program to reduce their mortgage rates because of this date. On 3/17/12 HARP was revamped (HARP 2.0) and home owners were given the power to shop for the best rates. However, those who previously refinanced under the original program are not eligible because of the the arbitrary cut off date and 1 time use limit set by FHFA Director Edward DeMarco. Eliminating the cutoff date and allowing home owners a 2nd chance to refinance under HARP 2.0 would help millions of Americans to save money on their monthly mortgage payment.
Every responsible homeowner should be able to refinance again under HARP 3.0,even who have done the HARP 1.0 AND HARP 2.0 to get the low rate.
Mary, I am totally agreed with you. I think it will cause disturbance for others if not applied.
How could this Petition NOT get enough signatures?? Could it be that like everything else that Homeowners deal with that NO ONE KNEW about it??? How ridiculous! Of course this needs to be REMOVED. Everyone knows that when this was first rolled out MOST all of us got refi’s that cost thousands of dollars with very little relief. There were no caps on the fees and most of the banks ABUSED the program. It cost me 10,000. and my payment went down 120.00 a month! Now, that I could really benefit because I used the program before I cannot use it??? Pathetic!!!
We have been the responsible ones. Recent times have not been kind to us either but we always manage to pay our bills on time and it seems we are essentially being punished for it. It is our turn to be helped!!! Pass 3.0 now!!!
We are responsible people with credit scores of 789 and 798, and do not qualify for the HARP program simply because our loan was secured on 9/1/09. Refinancing could save us $3,000 a year, but because of a date we are going to be punished for doing the right thing. PLEASE PASS HARP 3 NOW WITH EXTENDED CUT OFF DATE.!!!!!!
Please make sure you sign the link in the post above – this post is NOT the petition… although I appreciate your comments 🙂
Rhonda, can you tell us who is the current director of FHFA?
It still is DeMarco…
Again – I did not write the petition.
Thank you. I see that 45 House members have signed a letter to the President (2/7/2013) asking him to replace DeMarco ASAP, and appoint someone who will actually try to help underwater homeowners.
I am intensely interested in seeing the HARP program expanded to allow more homeowners to refinance at the current low interest rates. The June 1, 2009 is a real showstopper for many people, including my girlfriend. She is not underwater, but the equity that she had in her home has mostly evaporated since the housing crisis, so a conventional refi won’t work. Her loan was sold to Fannie Mae on June 4, 2009, so she missed by a whisker.
The President repeatedly urged Congress last year to implement a HARP 3.0 type of program, touting the substantial boost to the overall economy that would result. Approximately $3,000 of savings annually per homeowner would generate a lot of additional consumer spending.
It’s very unfortunate that the White House Petition has failed to garner very many signatures, with tomorrow (Feb. 8) being the deadline. A more effective publicity campaign needs to be mounted if it is tried again. I tried to do my part on Facebook.
The petition is no longer available. Is there anything that I can do to ensure that the government passes HARP 3?
Contact your Congress representatives.
I am so glad to have found this website. Thank you so much for all of this helpful information. I closed on my house on 6/26/09 and had no idea why I kept getting turned down for refinancing. All I was told by various lenders is “We’re sorry, your loan does not allow you to refinance”. I was like, come again?? I work full time and am a single parent. My credit is 740. It would help me more than lawmakers know if I could refi, and get possibly a couple hundred dollars less on my loan. My fixed rate is currently 5.25. Always been current on my loan too.
We would have qualified for the HARP, had it not been for our credit union keeping our loan in house. I feel like we are being punished because of that. We pay our bills on time, but we could really use the extra if we could qualify for the HARP. We could save thousands a year. I hope it is made available.
Allowing homeowners to refinance Their mortgages no matter who owns the loan, will lessen the monthly payments hence putting more money into the economy. And America will be stronger.
I agree Ryan. And I understand why another bank/lender is not wanting to refinance an underwater loan if they did not originate it. I think it’s terrible that some banks are refusing to help clients who otherwise qualify (credit, income, employment) where they currently service the mortgage.
Thanks for the article Rhonda.
I do believe that it is very unfair to have HARP 1 and 2, and not much has done to help non-GSE loans.
I refinanced in January of 2007 with a 3 year IO at 7.125%. the bank “rolled it after 3 years into another 3yr IO. I just got a letter today that states that it will adjust to a 24yr fixed rate of 7.125%, raising my mortgage payment by over $300.00.
I don’t remember being asked if I’d like my loan to be serviced by Fannie/Freddie. It wasn’t left up to me. Because of my bank’s decision to keep the loan in-house, I am now penalized by not being eligible for HARP 1 or 2?
This is about fairness. I am starting to lose hope in HARP 3.0. With the government the way (politics) it is, with our enormous debt, I just don’t see the effort from the President and Congress to get this passed.
I wish I was wrong.
Hi Brian,
I don’t think any of us knew in 2007 that we would need HARP loans or help from the government. It is unfair that many are excluded – including those with jumbo loans…it is what it is. If your bank would have offered you a Freddie or Fannie loan, would you have requested one over your 3 year interest only mortgage?
Allowing more people to refi would help the economy further progress.
🙂 As they say “hindsight is 20/20.” My hope is now in an organization called NACA (neighborhood assistance corporation of america), a non-profit HUD certified counceling agency to help those both purchase a home and save homeowners that are at risk. They compile documentation (budget, expenses, credit, hardship doc) together and request a modification on your behalf.
My hardship is medical.
This is true 🙂
Be careful with the loan mod – I’ve learned that some lenders view loan mods as “pre-foreclosures”. If you’re not planning on getting a new mortgage for a few years – then it doesn’t matter. If you are hoping to buy another home in the near future, a loan mod may prevent that.
I am a victim of the date issue as my loan got to Fannie on June 1 2009. I am eligible to refi now, but not necessarily getting the best deal. Does it make sense to move forward with the refi or is there benefits to waiting for HARP 3?
Steve, right now we don’t know when or IF HARP 3 will become available and IF it becomes available, we don’t know what it will include (ie will the June 1, 2009 date be removed). We also don’t know IF it becomes available what underwriting overlays banks/lenders may add or IF banks/lenders will embrace the program (I think if HARP 3 does become available – banks/lenders will offer it, however typically they have their own additional underwriting guidelines aka overlays).
It’s completely up to you if you want to wait or refi if you can refi now. Something else to consider is that when/if HARP 3 is available – we don’t know where rates will be. Rates *should* stay relatively low through the end of the year (to me, “low” means under 5%).
If you do refi now, it’s hard to say if you’d be allowed to refi again when/if HARP 3 is available (or if it would even make sense based on where rates may be at that time).
How much will you save each month if you refi now? How soon will you return to your current principal balance if you refi now?
Your petition does not specifically mention those whose loans are not owned by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – that is a significant portion of mortgage holders – certainly over a million. Why would you not mention that issue in the petition itself? I will not sign the petition
Mark, It’s not “my” petition. I have nothing to do with the creation of this – I’m just sharing this with the hopes of helping more home owners.
Mark – the issue with tring to do a program similar to HARP 1.0 & 2.0 on non-fannie and freddie securitized loans stems from the fact the US government would need millions of individuals & companies to agree on a deal, because these loans were private label mortgages mostly own (not serviced) by pension, foreaign investors, investment banks, etc…Not an issue process…If you were an investor in one of the securitized loan packages, would you be willing to take 40 – 60 cent on the dollar when the loans is performing?
It is unfortunate that after our loan servicer (Wells Fargo is mine) gets us into a deal for which we have no control who our investor is, they have the right to re-sell you mortgage to another investor. This is my case, a jumbo loan generated that is on its third investor now. After 6 years of letters and phone calls to Wells Fargo, nothing can be done because we are current, we may too much money but yet we are stuck on a bad mortgage. People are being forced to sell their home seeking to lower their budget cost. Mortgage companies do not care at all for their responsible home buyers. It’s all in for them. I am so deeply disappointing. I am almost giving up my home for ease of mind, and this is still a very depressing decision given I have small children in a school they love and friends that live around us. I do not qualify for Harp 1.0, 2.0 and Harp 3.0 is my only hope. Please hurry before we sell and come up with 30K to get out of this mess! I want to save my home!!!!
Sintia, jumbo loans are not Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.
If you would have known that different investors would have securitized your mortgage, would you have made the decision to not buy or refi your home with Wells Fargo at that time?
I think a majority of home owners wish they had a time machine where they could have made different decisions had they known the real estate bubble would pop.
From my experience, at that time, it was difficult to talk common sense to most when they wanted to “over buy” (not saying you did – I have no idea what your personal scenario is like) and/or use exotic mortgages that seemed risky to me at the time (I’ve written about this on my blog – one of the reasons I started this blog).
If and WHEN I did tell a buyer – you might want to wait until you qualify for a (better) mortgage, they went down the street to another mortgage lender…I was (and am) fine with that.
I wish refi’s were more available for all home owners who are underwater… especially those who have made their mortgage payments on time and would qualify otherwise (if not for loss of home equity).
Hi Rhonda,
Thank you for what you are doing. Many of us feel lost without any support and blogs like yours are so insightful. Just as an FYI… the average medium price for a single family homes in Fairfax VA is about a Jumbo loan price. Sadly I didn’t know much about lending practices as I do today. Seems to me there has been some injustices against home buyers that are responsible and receive no help while our banks (Wells Fargo) receive federal funds for bail out. I don’t live on a mansion, my home is modest only 2k sqrft 30 years old fixer upper. It just happen to be in DC area where everything is expensive for single family homes. I did my research before buying, we can afford our home, we are just stuck on a higher mortgage with no way out to refinance and save about $1000 a month. It’s a hard choice moving will cost us, staying will cost us as well if nothing can be done to help us refinance at least at 100%. We are not asking for money, just an opportunity to refinance at a better interest rate and more secure loan. That is why Harp 3.0 should pass as soon as possible.
What the consumers doesn’t understand is that if the date is lifted, and these loans are able to be refinance again while still be underwater they won’t see the same rates as normal conventional loans. The reason stems from the fact Harp 1.0 & 2.0 loans were not priced with the expectation that they’ll be lil to no early payment risk to the servicers, and as a result, this would cause all eligible borrowers on HARP 3.0 to pay rates significantly higher than normal conventional loans whereas right now HARP 2.0 loans rates are actually better than a conventional loan.
If Harp 3.0 were to pass and I was able to refinance (my loan is owned by US Bank), I am pretty sure that I would be able to qualify for a rate that is less than the 7.125% that I will be paying in april when my IO is going to adjust to a fixed rate.
So, not all Harp 3.0 refinancers are going to be those that have already refinanced under 1.0 or 2.0
Brian – You are current but the previous discussion only spoke about harp 3.0 lefting the date for fannie and freddie back loans. If HARP 3.0 was expanded to non-gse loans, it would a lot more potential benefits for borrowers than if it just extended ability to refi multiple times. I believe HARP 3.0 should be aimed at helping borrowers with loans not back by the gse refi if they are current and underwater. This would have a greater impact on the housing markets recorvery than a program designed to allow multiple harp refis.
It’s time for congress to act for all Americans, not a select few. The people that HARP 3 will affect are the responsible ones that know what its like to meet our debts. So far the banks that caused this mess are getting hand outs and at the same time holding us hostage. It’s time to act now.
I just found this site and unfortunately it looks like the petition didn’t pass.
I’ve been waiting for a harp 3 for over a year. I tried to play it safe when buying in late 2008 but now am stuck with a high rate (6.75) and an under water mortgage from my credit union which is not Fannie or Freddie backed. I would love an option to refi but the credit doesn’t care to help as long as I make my payments which I’ve never missed or been late on.
Maybe there will be another petition or other good news soon.
Every responsible homeowner should be able to refinance
I am thinking about just walking away form my home; I just took another huge pay cut and was waiting for HARP 3.0 trying to stay current with my mortgage. Its becoming unmanagable and in the not to distant future somehting has to give. I’ve contacted my mortgage company over 20 times and they won’t do anything. they are a service company only and say there is nothing they can do. IS there any hope for HARP 3.0 or is it lost at this point.
We need more people to sign the petition. Only 66 of us has signed the petition so far. We need to get the word out via social media if possible. Im sure more than 66 of us are getting the short end of the stick .
Makes no sense to sign a petition that does not cover the greatest number in this scenario. ie: the non freddie and fannie loans.
Your aking the taxpayer to fund something they will have no opportunity to benefit from.
As a mortgage broker you stand to benefit either way so I understand you not really taking a stance on the issue, but the people need to make effective change.
Getting it right for some just is not good enough.
Hi Mike
That petition (the one I originally posted) I believe is since expired.
In my opinion, the ability for more home owners to refinance at a much lower rate, does benefit tax payers.
(1) refinancing to a lower rate reduces the mortgage payment which puts more cash flow into our economy;
(2) possibly prevents a foreclosure or short sale which would potentially bring down home values in that neighborhood (impacting other refinances and/or purchase appraised values).
This impacts more people than just the person who would qualify for the refinance.
My family and I need the Harp 3 as well as families. I hope the Harp 3.0 is released soon or I will be out my American Dream as well as familes will be.
Hi Mary, my wife and I refinanced in June 2009. We didn’t know anything about Harp and our mortgage company did not tell us. We have 10% equity in out house and have been hoping for a change in date for a few years now! We are plugging away, but would love the opportunity to lock in lower. Hope that it passes with a date change or no cut off at all. I would love to sign a petition.
Eric, nobody – including your lender, knew that the HARP program would be available or even exist in June 2009. If you have 10% equity in your home, you may want to check with a local mortgage professional to see if refinancing now makes sense – you may have pmi for a while but I’m not sure I’d wait for HARP 3 – there is no guarantee it will happen.
Mary was the first to post…my comments were meant for Rhonda’s insight also.
Eric
Please pass Harp 3 before I have to walk away from my 6% conventional loan that is worth far less than what I owe. I have an excellent credit with a score of 798, but unfortunately am getting tired of never having any extra money. I tried to refinance, but am unable to because this is a conventional loan. My bank discouraged me from getting the Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac loans at the time. With the interest I have paid to date, my bank has more than received their return on their investment.
Would Harp 3 help me if I own an investment property that has a convention loan? I didn’t do a “flip this house” or anything just was trying to get extra income and invested my hard earn money into a property that I can barely hold on to. Not able to refinance because I am under water like everyone else. Please advise. thanks.
Hi Sandra,
We don’t know when or if HARP 3.0 will become available or what the conditions will be.
If your conventional mortgage was securitized by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac prior to June 1, 2009, then your investment property may qualify for HARP 2.0. If you closed June 2009 or later (possibly even earlier than June 2009 since securitization is different than the closing date) than your investment property does not qualify for HARP 2.0.
Hi All,
I know u feel. And similar to Sandra, except I missed the date. Is there a petition? The one on this website expired. I wrote already to every senatir on the committee. Maybe I need to email them all again, and mine also:
I settled in 9/2009 w/ a Freddie Mac 51/2% fixed 30 yr mortgage. I am still stretching to make payments. And on time, credit score 800. but I am under water, also a single parent of a child w disabilities. I feel The cut off date extension will help families like ours on the brink of foreclosure. I missed the date by months after trying to qualify for the Hope program, which was b4 harp. Now I feel I missed the boat w interest rates going up. What can I do to make this happen!!??
I’d b happy to contact every senator and sign any petitiin anf will try to contact mine today. But what really can be done?
We obtained our loan in 2004 from a private lending company. Not long after that the market crashed, and now we are currently upside down, but we do not qualify for any of the programs out there right now.
i need harp three!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am a homeowner whose mortage is underwater. HARP 3 is need to help me refinance my loan. I am current on my mortage
Praying to God, that the HARP 3 passes in congress! I’ve been contacting my mortgage company every 3 to 6 months hoping qualifications have changed. I could really use a break in my current mortgage payment.