There is hope for families struggling to make ends meet. Your mortgage lender can help by refinancing your home mortgage to a lower interest rate. The past several years have been difficult on many families, with many struggling to pay their mortgage. When the housing bubble burst it did far more than take away home equity. The entire financial system was effected. When banks stopped the free flow of credit consumers stopped buying as much and businesses were unable to get the capital they needed to stay afloat. That contributed to layoffs and high unemployment. Foreclosures soon followed and the cycle continued.
In many areas throughout the country jobs are starting to slowly come back and so is the real estate market. California has seen as much as a 19% increase in home values in one month. Places near DC have houses selling within a week of getting on the market. Overall unemployment was down in July to 7.4% with 162,000 non farm jobs added. Throughout the year there has been a gain of 1.2 million jobs. This is good news for many families and as more jobs become available the real estate market will also improve.
The challenge is what do families do right now, today? For someone that is struggling financially, and in a home that is worth less than they owe, how do they improve their financial situation? The answer is a HARP loan and your local mortgage banker can help. Having additional money to pay for soccer shoes, make the cell phone payment, and buy back to school clothes can improve a family’s financial situation and make life more enjoyable. By simply refinancing your existing home loan, and lowering your interest rate, you can free up hundreds of dollars to spend on other things.
The Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) was designed to make it easier for homeowners to stay in their homes. The program allows people to refinance that have less than 20% equity in their homes. This means that if you have a little equity, no equity, or are completely underwater you could qualify for this refinance program. Even if you bought at the top of the bubble, this program can help you. By lowering the interest rate on your mortgage it increases your ability to make the monthly payment. That is the idea behind HARP.
Lower interest rate = lower monthly payment = ability to pay the mortgage and stay in the home
One important thing to remember is that you need to contact your mortgage lender when you are concerned about your ability to keep paying your mortgage on time. If you feel a financial crunch – call now. If you wait and try to use the HARP program after you have stopped making, or have paid late, on your mortgage – you will be unable to qualify. Your local mortgage lender can help you to secure a refinance and save money on a monthly basis. Call today and have your mortgage banker review your current home loan to see how much money you could save by refinancing.
