Arizona Homeowners – There is a new plan being announced by the federal government in order to give you another option when it comes to the refinancing of your home.  The difficulty in this new plan is whether or not you can qualify for this new deal.

The old plan had it’s good and bad aspects.  The GOOD:  The federal Home Affordable Refinancing Program has allowed certain loans to be refinanced if the borrower owed up to 125 percent of the home’s value.  The BAD:  Most borrowers in Arizona owe way more than that.

The new plan is said to lift the value requirement altogether, if their loan is backed by the government AND meet the income requirements.  This is where it gets sticky, because you have to meet both of them.  If you have a loan that is backed by either Freddie or Fannie, that’s just the first of two conditions.

Will this really help the housing market and homeowners who need it, or will it just artificially prop up the market and delay the inevitable.

Is it really good to have our government insure loans that are secured by assets that are worth 50% of the loan amount? It appears that this will just prolong the problem.

If I owe $300K on my house and it is currently worth $200K, refinancing will save me some money monthly but the odds are if I sell my home in the next 5 to 10 years I will still owe more on house then it is worth and have a problem.

So, Do I qualify???

Homeowners have to be current in order to qualify for this refinance and can’t have missed more than one payment in the last 12 months.

Is my loan owned by Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae?

Go to http://www.fanniemae.com/loanlookup or https://ww3.freddiemac.com/corporate to find out if your load is backed by these national organizations.

Do I make enough documented income to qualify for the new payment?   If not, homeowners will not qualify for this program.

This seems to be a good program in theory, but the actual implementation of this might be too late and too ineffective.  Applications are being accepted, if you’ve tried everything else, it might be time to attempt, this as well.

You can read more on this article online here:  http://www.azcentral.com/business/realestate/articles/2011/10/25/20111025arizona-homeowners-underwater-help-obama.html