To qualify, all these things must be true:

1. The mortgage must be taken out before the end of May of 2009.
2. You have to be up to date on your payments, with no late payments for 6 months.
3. You must have income and decent credit
4. Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac must own your loan. Not sure if they do? Follow the links and enter your information to find out.

There is no limit on loan-to-value — that is, you can be very underwater and still qualify, unlike the original HARP program. It’s not limited to owner occupants either, so investors and owners of second homes are welcome to apply. If you currently have mortgage insurance, it has to be the kind that can transfer to the new loan. You can theoretically lower your interest rate to under 5%. You can even roll your closing costs into the loan and not owe any money at closing! And you don’t have to run the refinancing through your current servicer.

That’s a lot of good stuff. Now let me remind you of the not-so-good stuff. HARP 2.0 won’t help you if you are unemployed, behind on your payments, or both. You will still need to provide all the normal documentation for a mortgage: tax information, pay stubs, bank statements, etc.. You will have to provide some information you may not have kept from when you bought the house. Further, you may need a new appraisal — even though the loan is not tied to the value of the property. This program does not involve any principal reduction. That is, if you owe $50k more than the property is worth, you will still owe that money. If you roll your closing costs into the loan, you will owe that money too — with interest.

As John said, the idea of HARP 2.0 is to prevent strategic default and keep people who can afford their homes from walking away to get a lower interest rate. The fact is that you’ll still be underwater. This plan is designed for people who want to and are able to stay in their homes. If you think you will be needing to move in the next few years for any reason — health, job transfer, whatever — then this is not the plan for you. All you’ll be doing is delaying your short sale.

The Federal Housing Administration is about to make it even tougher to borrow money from Uncle Sam to buy a home.

Now let me makes something perfectly clear: when you take out an FHA loan, you do not borrow money from the government. You borrow that money from a bank just like you would a conventional loan. The FHA doesn’t lend anything; they guaranty your performance on the loan. You will pay mortgage insurance to the FHA for this privilege.

That being said, it is correct that the new rules will prevent an FHA loan if there is a large credit dispute. As always, I urge borrowers to check their credit reports and get them cleaned up before getting excited about buying a home. Some mortgage officers can help you clean your credit, and others know somebody who can help if there is a problem.

However, there may still be fallout and disagreements. Bank of America appears to have agreed to make a good number of pretty large mortgage modifications. It can’t be all good for consumers: JP Morgan Chase just announced a bigger dividend to stockholders.

And here’s some more great commentaries and news items on this “settlement.” The consensus? Banks 1, People 0.

As a bonus, the taxpayers are about to be soaked another $100,000,000,000 — as a bare minimum! — on loans held by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

However, I’d like credit for predicting that the big foreclosure fraud settlement would involve fewer than 49 states. Nevada is among the hold-outs.

I wonder what the Feds threatened. More on the settlement on today’s show!

What isn’t being said is that, if LPS’s purpose is to create fraudulent documents for the banks — and Dylan Rattigan points out that if the banks had the necessary documents, they wouldn’t need to forge new ones — that makes them a corrupt criminal organization under RICO. It could be very interesting to see what unravels as a result of this case.

There are catches of course. First, your loan must be owned by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. That’s a lot of loans but far from all of them. The Obama Administration is working on a program to “force” other institutions to help with negative equity refinancing, but there will be push-back from the banks. You must be current on the mortgage, and you can only apply if you got your mortgage before May 2009. You’ll still owe the entire original balance, so you’ll still owe more than the home is worth — possibly much more as compound interest racks up!

And one more detail courtesy of CNN: “And perhaps, most significantly, it will ease banks’ liability to repurchase the loans if the borrower defaults. This should increase competition among banks to refinance more homeowners in good standing, administration officials said.” So we have another half-measure to “help” homeowners that really helps the banks that got us into this mess in the first place.

The California Attorney General has pulled out of the settlement talks and plans to run her own investigation! I wouldn’t be surprised if the New York Attorney General followed, since he‘s already talked about investigating on his own, and says he’s looking forward to talking with her.

For that matter, since Nevada‘s Attorney General has taken Bank of America to court for (allegedly) not abiding by a 2009 agreement on foreclosures and foreclosure fraud, it would make sense for her to join the party as well.

On an unrelated note, since we normal humans have to follow the law, remember that Nevada has 141 new laws today.

Since the credit downgrade within the US, there have been endless rumors that the mortgage rates and the personal loan rates will raise to an unnatural level and the prospective homebuyers and the debtors may go through sudden credit crunch. But things didn’t turn up as per the predictions of the financial analysts. The mortgage rates have fallen to their record low level and this change has kept phone bells ringing in the banks and other financial institutions that specialize in dealing with mortgage loans. If you’re looking for ahome refinance loan, this is the best time to make use of the opportunity of rock-bottom interest rates. Should you jump in to the refi bandwagon and save your home from a foreclosure? Have a look at some considerations.

• Check the present mortgage rates: You must consider the current mortgage interest rate so that you get to know what you’re being charged. You must stay sure about the rates so that there are no misconceptions in the future and your mortgage lender does not deceive you into accepting mortgage rates that are higher than your expectation. If you find any company that is offering higher mortgage rates, try not to stick with them as you may fall in danger.
• Shop around: If you want to take out a home refinance loan at a lower rate, you have to shop around extensively so that you can compare and contrast the rates and pick the best ones in the market. Get mortgage quotes from at least 5-6 companies so that you can choose the one with the most favorable terms and conditions and with the lowest interest rate.
• Improve your credit: Your credit score is something that is checked by your lender in order to make sure whether or not you can make timely payments on the mortgage loan. Your credit score implies how worthy you are while making the payments on time and if you have a good credit score, this will certainly mean that you have a record of paying the monthly debt obligations on time. You will certainly be given a mortgage at a low rate if you have a good credit score.
• Enough equity: Equity also plays an important role in getting you a reasonable refinance deal. You need to have a good amount of equity in your home so as to get a new home refinance loan at an affordable rate. You must have at least 5% equity in your home so as to grab a refinance loan at an affordable rate.

Therefore, if you want to make sure that you get a home refinance loan at a reasonable rate, you must follow the tips mentioned above. Make repayments with ease so that you can save your home from a foreclosure.
I am waiting for your reply soon.