Making Home Affordable Program

The Making Home Affordable Program announced on March 4 includes Fannie Mae Home Affordable Refinance options and the Home Affordable Modification Program.
Summary information is provided below. Refer to the links on the left for detailed information, provided to assist you in implementing the Program.

Home Affordable Refinance Options

As part of the Making Home Affordable Program, Fannie Mae is offering refinances of existing Fannie Mae loans. The goal of the refinance initiative, 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 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 loan structure (such as interest-only or short-term ARM) to a more stable product.

Home Affordable Refinance provides two options for Fannie Mae lenders to provide Fannie Mae to Fannie Mae refinance solutions to eligible borrowers: 1) Refi Plus^TM, which requires manual underwriting, and 2) DU Refi Plus^TM for loans underwritten through Desktop Underwriter® (DU®).

Highlights

• Expanded opportunities for Fannie Mae to Fannie Mae refinances through Refi Plus, which requires manual underwriting, and DU Refi Plus for loans underwritten through Desktop Underwriter (DU)
• A solution for borrowers with LTVs above 80 percent who currently may not be able to refinance because of existing MI coverage requirements
• LTVs up to 105 percent on the new loan and additional underwriting

Home Affordable Modification

The Home Affordable Modification Program creates a defined loan modification process through which borrowers who are in default, at risk of imminent default, or in foreclosure can have their loans modified to a more affordable monthly payment equal to a target 31 percent of their monthly gross income.

All servicers must participate in the program for all eligible Fannie Mae portfolio mortgages and MBS pool mortgages. Servicers may also elect to participate in the HMP for other qualifying mortgage loans that:

• Are not subject to a Fannie Mae's credit loss guarantee; and
• Are held by servicers in their own portfolios or are serviced by servicers for other portfolio or securitization trust or investors.

In order for a servicer to participate in the HMP with respect to other qualifying mortgages, the servicer must execute a servicer participation agreement and related documents with Fannie Mae as Financial Agent for the United States (as designated by the Treasury).

The Home Affordable Modification Program, which expires on December 31, 2012, replaces the Streamlined Modification Program (SMP) introduced in Announcement 08-33, dated December 12, 2008, and the Early Workout program (EWP) announced in Announcement 08-31, dated December 8, 2008.
The Making Home Affordable logo and Making Home Affordable are trademarks of the United States Department of the Treasury and are used under license.

Click here for details to see if you can take advantage of the program.

http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/reports/guidelines_summary.pdf