HARP Share of Refinancing Slipped in September

Nearly three-quarters of a million households have refinanced through the Home Affordable Refinancing Program since the program's parameters were changed late last year according to a report released Wednesday by the Federal Housing Finance Agency.  The program is on track to serve nearly twice the number of homeowners as it did in 2011 under the old program rules.

While refinancing overall was up by over 9,000 loans in September compared to August, the number of HARP loans declined.  The report says that 90,789 homeowners refinanced through HARP in September compared to 98,885 in August.  The September figure is 21 percent of the total of 431,342 refinances done through the two GSEs during that period while HARP had a 23.5 percent share of refinancing in August.   Fannie Mae was responsible for 52,975 of the September HARP total and Freddie Mac refinanced 37,814 loans. 

About half of the HARP loans made in September (45,633) had LTV ratios between 80 to 105 percent with the remainder close to evenly divided between loans with LTVs between 105 percent and 125 percent (21,930) and those with LTVs over 125 percent (23,226).    Since the cap was removed 141,696 borrowers have refinanced loans with LTVs over 125 percent.

One of the revisions made to the HARP program in 2011 was to eliminate some risk-based fees for borrowers who refinance into shorter term mortgages.  In September 19 percent of HARP borrowers took advantage of this incentive by refinancing into 15 or 20 year loans compared to 18 percent in August.