Florida Obama Refinance To 125% Announced
Today, it was announced by HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan that people who owed more than 105% of what their home was worth could now refinance up to 125% of the home’s value. This is great news for people all over Florida who may have been told they couldn’t refinance prior to today because the previous limit was 105%. By expanding the guidelines to the Making Home Affordable plan, many people right here in Florida will now be able to refinance and take advantage of lower rates.
Both right here in Florida as well as all over the US, there will now be thousands of people who currently owe more than 105% of their home’s value take advantage of lower rates while they are available. Before rates go up again, it is expected that many people here in Florida will rush to get their refinance applications in.
In a story by CNN:
The move acknowledges that home prices in many areas have fallen so far that many people were shut out of the program. Some 67% of homeowners in Las Vegas — one of the hardest hit areas where Housing Secretary Shaun Donovan announced the expansion Wednesday — owe more than their homes are worth.
According to Bloomberg:
The decision to change the allowable ratio is part of an effort to “adapt to an ever-changing housing market,” Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said in the HUD statement. “By expanding refinance eligibility, we can bring relief to more struggling homeowners more quickly.”
Paul Miller, an analyst with FBR Capital Markets in Arlington, Virginia, said mortgage brokers have told him that many aren’t sending borrowers through the program because it’s cumbersome and the loan applications “still have a lot of bells and whistles, which makes them difficult to do.”
“I don’t think it’s going to have much of an impact because you still don’t have enough qualified borrowers,” Miller said, referring to today’s announcement. “It will help on the margin, but the issues with Obama’s plans is that they all focus on affordability and not principal writedowns and at some point they’re going to have to address” that, he said.
A drop in values has left about 20.4 million of the U.S.’s 93 million houses, condos and co-ops with mortgages higher than the properties are worth as of March 31, Seattle-based real estate data service Zillow.com said in a report May 6.
What This Means For People Living In Florida
Although it can be hard to estimate the number of people here in Florida that can benefit from this plan, one thing is clear – many people across the nation will be able to now take advantage of lower rates. To find out if you qualify under the recent Obama refinance guideline changes, be sure to contact your local Florida mortgage expert today.
