In a report issued earlier this month by the Federal Housing Finance Agency, it was revealed that many home owners are taking advantage of the HARP 2.0 refinance program.  From the FHFA’s Refinance Report:

“In June, borrowers with loan to values greater than 105% accounted for 62% of HARP volume, up 32% in May ad 15% in 2011. In addition, 18 percent of underwater borrowers chose shorter-term 15 and 20 year mortgages, which build equity faster than traditional 30 year mortgages.”

It hasn’t always been a slam dunk for home owners to find lenders willing to do higher loan to value HARP 2.0. Some banks have been limiting who they will help with HARP refi’s and/or have additional underwriting overlays in addition to the Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac guidelines. This causes the entire process to bog down when only a few resources are available to the hoards of borrowers who need help.

Last month, I shared with you that one of our resources, EverBank, elected to stop offering HARP 2.0 refinances to mortgages securitized by Freddie Mac. Yesterday we learned that another major lender in the HARP 2.0 arena, CMG Mortgage, has elected to to stop accepting applications effective yesterday in an attempt to get a handle on the volumes of applications they already have in their pipeline.  From CMG’s memo yesterday:

“Like you, we knew this program would help millions of Americans that have struggled to stay in their home despite their property being substantially underwater…. What we didn’t know was that so few lenders would have stopped either partially or completely offering HARP 2.0. As a result, we have become inundated with business. …our turn times do not make us happy, you happy or your borrowers happy…we feel the need to temporarily stop taking HARP 2.0 loans to allow us to catch up…. Once turn times are back in line, we will resume taking submissions of HARP 2.0 loans as we have i the past.”

We are still accepting applications for HARP 2.0 mortgages for homes located in Washington state. We are brokering most loans that are over 105% loan to value which means they do take much longer to close. Most loan to values under 105% we are able to care for through our correspondent channels.

If you’re interested in refinancing your Washington home, I’m happy to help you.