Making Homes Affordable
Tuesday, April 14th, 2009The “Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan” has been renamed to Making Home Affordable or MHA. There are 3-4 million Homeowners that are eligible for loan modifications and could very well see rates as low as 2% under the new MHA. Of course, you do have to qualify under this plan.
A loan modification, also called a workout, just changes the terms of your existing loan without creating a new one. These modifications will make your mortgage more affordable and help you avoid foreclosure. The best thing about a loan modification is that it is available to anyone, even those who have not missed payments that are at risk of missing some.
You may qualify if you are under the balance limit of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mae, which may be as high as $729,000 in some high-cost areas. The program also comes with financial incentives for both lenders and homeowners.
Business owners have been availing themselves with commercial loan workouts for years to help your business. If you have a commercial loan default, the MHA may not be able to help you. I would suggest that you contact a loan or special server to help you with your commercial loan. A special server can help get you a principal reduction for thousands of dollars over five years for paying on time.
According to the Treasury’s Making Home Affordable Updated Detailed Program Description, “To reach the target affordability level of 31%, interest payments will first be reduced down to as low as 2%. If at that rate the income level is still over 31%, lenders then extend the term or amortization period up to 40 years, and finally forbear principal at no interest, until the payment is reduced to the 31% target.”
The problem is, lenders are not very forgiving. If lenders would reduce interest rates and extend the life of a loan and even reducing the principal they could help homeowners make housing more affordable.
If you would like to find out if you are eligible for the program, you can visit FinancialStability.gov’s refinance area to find out.





