The Obama Making Home Affordable Program for your House
Do You Qualify for Refinancing Through the Making Home Affordable Program?
Through the Home Affordable Refinance arm of Obama's new Making Home Affordable Program, homeowners whose homes have decreased in value may be able to refinance their existing mortgage. At The Making Home Affordable Program website (which is the official government website) , you can take a short quiz which will help you find out if you qualify. The questions you will be asked are simple, and upon submission you will be re-directed at the site for further information. I took the quiz yesterday and although I will not qualify for this particular program, there is also another arm of The Making Home Affordable Program which deals with homeowners facing mortgage hardships due to job loss or an increase in their mortgage rate.
To get an idea of what you will be asked for here are the questions The Making Home Affordable website will ask you:
1. Are you the owner of a one- to four-unit home?
2. Do you have a loan owned or guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac?
3. Are you current on your mortgage payments?
4. Do you believe that the amount you owe on your first mortgage is about the same or less than the current value of your house?
Home Affordable Refinance
If you answered yes to all these questions, you may be eligible to get help refinancing through The Making Home Affordable Program.
The important things that will be looked at in determining if you are eligible from that point on will be if you have sufficient income to make the new mortgage payments and if refinancing will improve your ability to maintain the mortgage payments over the long term.
For more information and the direct link to the Making Home Affordable Program you can visit the official government website at www.makinghomeaffordable.com
Good luck and don't despair! It looks like some of us may be getting a bailout too!
(Dorsi Diaz is a professional writer and climate change reporter for the San Francisco Examiner)