Mississippi Mortgage Rates

The Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) continues to account for a substantial portion of total refinance volume in many states. Mississippi ranked 6th in CoreLogic’s second quarter 2012 Negative Equity Report.

Nationwide, negative equity and near negative equity mortgages accounted for 27 percent of all residential properties with a mortgage nationwide in the second quarter, down from 28.5 percent at the end of the first quarter in 2012. Near negative equity mortgages refer to homeowners who have less than five percent equity in their home.

On a nationwide basis, lenders refinanced more mortgages through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac under the HARP program in the first six months of 2012 than all of last year, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), the regulator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Indeed, HARP has grown from nine percent to 25 percent of refinance volume at Freddie Mac. HARPs have been provided to more than 565,000 borrowers with LTV ratios above 80%. About 85,000 HARPs were closed during the first quarter of 2012.

HARP is available to help Mississippi homeowners. The government program was launched in 2009 to help homeowners who are underwater on their mortgages to refinance their home loans. HARP has been tweaked several times since its inception as a result of criticism from both lenders and borrowers. In an earlier version of HARP, there was a 125 percent loan-to-value ceiling; but, that ceiling, which was proving to be a detriment to homeowners who wanted to refinance under the program, was eliminated this summer.

To qualify for HARP, a mortgage must be owned by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac and it must have closed before June 1, 2009. An appraisal is not required. In addition, you are not eligible if you missed any mortgage payments by more than 30 days in the last six months; however, after you make enough payments on time, you can become eligible.

FreeRateUpdate.com surveys more than two dozen wholesale and direct lenders’ rate sheets to determine the most accurate mortgage rates available to well qualified consumers at about a 1 point origination fee.