FHA Streamline Refinance in Wyoming

By Eric Smith


Underwater homeowners can take advantage of low FHA streamline refinance in Wyoming rates if their existing home mortgages have been owned or insured by FHA. By qualifying for FHA streamline home refinancing, borrowers could lower their monthly payments and save hundreds of dollars every month on mortgage installments. Besides, the FHA does not require applicants to conduct new home appraisal for providing streamlined refinance home loans but instead it presumes the original price of your home to be its current value.

First, the baseline criteria: Your current home loan must be FHA-insured and must have been put on the Federal Housing Administration's books no later than May 31, 2009. If you have a mortgage owned or backed by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the Department of Veterans Affairs or private investors, you're out. The May 31, 2009, date is crucial. Your lender can tell you precisely when the FHA "endorsed" your loan for insurance. This is different from the dates you applied for your loan or closed on your house. If it turns out to be any time later than May 31, 2009, you miss the cut.

You also need to have an unblemished record of on-time mortgage payments for the last 12 months. Maybe you were late occasionally a couple of years back. That's OK. But the last 12 months need to be pristine. On top of that, if your refinancing does not provide you a net savings of at least 5% in your monthly principal, interest and mortgage insurance payments, you won't be eligible either. The program won't take effect until June 11.

Those are the main hurdles. But they are substantial enough to exclude hundreds of thousands of FHA borrowers who might otherwise want to refinance. According to an FHA spokesman, Brian Sullivan, the agency has roughly 500,000 active loans in its portfolio that are eliminated from participation solely on the basis of the May 31, 2009, cutoff date. Of those, an estimated 145,000 have mortgage interest rates higher than 5% -" making them prime candidates for a refi if it weren't for the cutoff date.

Now for the good stuff: Under the Obama plan, if you qualify on the criteria above, you get to breeze through the paperwork maze and underwriting hassles that come with any refinancing. The FHA streamline refi requires: No new verifications of your income or employment status. If you've been paying on time for a year, the presumption is that you've got the needed income. No new credit evaluation, credit reports or FICO scores. No new physical appraisal. The program generally accepts the appraised value of your home at the time you closed on your current FHA loan as good enough -" even if you're now in serious negative equity territory. Check out FHA streamline refinance in Wyoming.




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