Obama’s Home Refinance Stimulus Package Can Help Pay Off Your Mortgage

Factory closings, unpaid furloughs, companies going bankrupt, layoffs-even if you still have a job, it’s likely that your company is striving to cut costs by limiting overtime and deleting benefits. The current financial crisis has hit everyone hard, especially homeowners. Due to the housing bubble, many people owe more money on their homes than they are currently worth. Others are simply having trouble meeting their monthly mortgage payments. President Obama’s home refinance stimulus package offers two different solutions for homeowners.The “Home Affordable Refinance” plan is the right pick for you if you are still current on your payments, but need to refinance with a lower interest rate. This will allow you to make lower monthly payments, but still increase the equity you have in your property. The principle amount you owe will be the same, only the interest rate will change. The home must be your primary residence, and you only have until June 10, 2010 to arrange for this refinance plan.The “Home Affordable Modification” plan is for you if the monthly housing expenses for your primary residence are more than 31% of your gross income and you can no longer afford your mortgage payments. Whether it’s because of a job loss or medical expenses, this part of the home refinance stimulus package will allow you to work with your bank to modify the terms of your mortgage. And in some cases, for every month you makes your payment on time, the Treasury Department will actually make a payment toward the principle of your loan-as much as $5,000 over 5 years! This mortgage modification plan is available until December 31, 2012.Yes, the federal government is trying to help you pay off your mortgage; but in order to claim your own home refinance stimulus package, you need to find out more about it.