The Federal Housing Finance Agency [1] (FHFA) released its July 2017 Refinance Report [2], showing that total refinances for the month were down, which the report attributes to the fact that mortgage rates are still higher than they were year-over-year.
The average interest rate for a conventional 30-year fixed mortgage rose month-over-month from 3.90 percent to 3.97 percent, unencouraging to refinancing.
Still, there were a total of 2,305 refinances initiated in July through the HARP program, which totals 3,473,109 since the program’s inception, and represents a total of 2 percent of all refinance volume. Out of that pool of loans, 7 percent had a loan-to-value ratio over 125 percent.
Year-to-date numbers from the reports are as follows: 19 percent of all HARP refinances had LTV ratios greater than 105 percent, and 26 percent of underwater borrowers that took advantage of the HARP program were composed of shorter term 15-year and 20-year mortgages.
Regionally, nine states and territories accounted for over 60 percent of national HARP eligible loans via refinance. The top five states, as of March 31, 2017 were as follows: Illinois (14,105); Florida (13,115); Michigan (11,179); Ohio (10,587); and Puerto Rico (9,390). Trailing the list was New Jersey, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and New York.
For the full refinance report, click here [2].