Today Obama is scheduled to announce his new revisions to HARP (Home Affordable Refinance Program) and this will be very good news to the homeowners out there who have been unable to refinance under this program since in started in 2009 due to their homes not appraising.

The HARP program first started in 2009 with the intention to help homeowners who are unable to refinance their home mortgages due to appraisal issues.  Banks had tightened their underwriting guidelines and required that home owners have at least 5%-10% equity in their homes in order to refinance.  The problem was that home values had dropped to a point where many people could not refinance because they had less than 5% equity and in many cases, owed more than their home was worth.

HARP changed that for some by offering a program where borrowers could go to their lender (as long as the loan was backed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac) and refinance their home even if their Loan-to-Value ratio was as high as 105%.  They still required an appraisal, but it was good news for some.  Later on in 2009, that Loan-to-Value limit was bumped up to 125%.  Still, the program did not have as much success as the President thought it would and according the Wall Street Journal, less than 900,000 homeowners took advantage of this program since 2009 and only 72,000 of those borrowers had loan-to-value ratios between 105%-125%.

The new push sounds like it will completely do away with the need for an appraisal and will allow borrowers to refinance regardless of what their home is worth compared to what is owed on it.  Now this is targeted to help certain parts of the country that are hurting much worse than the Atlanta real estate market is, but it will be available to all. If you have been sitting back saying “this isn’t for me because I owe too much,”think again!  This is not aimed at people who are in danger of foreclosure or are going through some sort of hardship, this is for anyone who wants to Refinance down to today’s ridiculously low rates and can’t do it otherwise simply because their property value has fallen below what they owe on the house.

The Wall Street Journal did a very good FAQ this morning on the new program…check it out.