New Affordable Mortgage Refinance Program
ByAn important part of Fannie Mae’s role in the Making Home AffordableSM Program is Home Affordable Refinance, available for mortgage refinance transactions of existing Fannie Mae loans only. The goal of the mortgage refinance effort, as announced by the President, is “to provide access to low-cost refinancing for responsible homeowners suffering from falling home prices.” The expectation is that mortgage refinancing a Fannie Mae loan will put responsible borrowers in a better position by reducing their monthly principal and interest payments or moving them from a more risky home loan structure (such as interest-only or short-term ARM) to a more stable product.
Home Affordable Refinance provides two Refi Plus™ options for Fannie Mae lenders to provide Fannie Mae to Fannie Mae refinance solutions to eligible borrowers: 1) Refi Plus, which requires manual underwriting, and 2) DU Refi Plus™ for mortgage loans underwritten through Desktop Underwriter® (DU®). FHA home loans continue to be the most popular method for refinancing adjustable rate mortgages into fixed rate loans.
