HARP ceiling lifts up to 125% loan-to-value

Home Affordable Refinance Program, or HARP, was recently amended. Relief Refinance Mortgage by Freddie Mac comes under this title. It's now in the books that the previous limit of 105% has been pushed up to 125% loan-to-value, or LTV, something that Washington had been playing with for a bit. "This is a change that will put affordable refinancing opportunities within reach of performing borrowers who have suffered the effects of local home price erosion," explained coolly a Freddie Mac suit. Eligible homeowners are current on their loan payments and have a mortgage owned or guaranteed by the agency.

Freddie Mac's Relief Refinance Mortgage has some usable features, too, that might be of interest to Las Vegas homeowners. It allows borrowers to finance closing and financing costs and prepaids/escrows up to $5,000, or 4% of the mortgage balance to be refinanced, whichever is less. Moreover, mortgage insurance, or MI, is not needed if the underlying note does not have one. If there happens to be an MI on the existing mortgage, the new one must keep the same coverage. That's nice.

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