Fannie Mae (the Federal National Mortgage Association) issued a statement yesterday morning boasting that home loan refinancing volume jumped to $41 Billion in February (nearly three times the refinancing volume the company experienced during the month of January and the largest refinancing volume in nearly 12 months). The government sponsored enterprise also announced the launch of a new online look-up tool on the company’s Web site (http://loanlookup.fanniemae.com/loanlookup/) that it says allows homeowners to determine if they have a Fannie Mae-held mortgage — a determining factor in whether a homeowner is eligible for the recently announced Obama Administration’s refinancing plan.

More interesting to me though was this juicy nugget of info:

“The company also disclosed that more than 100,000 borrowers had accessed its online mailbox to inquire about their eligibility for refinancing under the Obama Administration’s refinancing plan, and about 50,000 callers have contacted Fannie Mae’s national hotline since the plan was announced.”

If you read last Thursday’s blog entry (”Foreclosure Statistics for February 2009“), you already know that one in every 440 U.S. homes received a foreclosure filing in February (that stat comes courtesy of RealtyTrac’s 2009 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report). So, if 150,000 homeowners have attempted since the 4th of March to determine if they are eligable for the new refinancing plan, that means that an amount equal to approximately 52 percent of the 290,631 homes that received foreclosure filings last month are now actively seeking to refinance their homes in order to possibly avoid or forestall foreclosure.

Given the fact that credit is tight right now, refinancing may not be available to everyone. If you can qualify for a fixed-rate, low-interest loan to pay off a higher interest loan and perhaps even consolidate your debts, refinancing could be one of your best options. However, be careful that you don’t borrow just for a short-term fix, and watch the upfront costs for originating the re-fi. Also, don’t take out a loan if you can’t really afford the payments now or in the future.

Related: Since we now have access to an online look-up tool for determining if you have a Fannie Mae-held mortgage, I’ve updated my March 2nd blog entry, “Who Owns my Mortgage?“.

Ralph R. Roberts, GRI, CRS Award-Winning REALTOR® and Author Loan Modification For Dummies (avail. Summer 2009)

Fannie Mae has announced it is extending — through March 31, 2009 — its moratorium of all eviction proceedings involving Fannie Mae funded mortgage investments, as the government-sponsored enterprise (GSE) implements new initiatives aimed at helping more distressed homeowners save their homes.

In making the announcement, Fannie Mae also issued special foreclosure sale requirements in response to the Obama administration’s Making Home Affordable program. According to the GSE, a foreclosure sale may not occur on any Fannie Mae loan until the loan servicer verifies that the borrower is ineligible for a “Home Affordable Modification” and all other foreclosure prevention alternatives have been exhausted.

Through its Home Affordable Modification Initiative, Fannie Mae will work with loan servicers across the United States to help distressed borrowers modify their current loan into a mortgage that is more affordable and sustainable. Loan servicers participating in the program may reduce interest rates, lengthen the payment time frame or take other steps, such as principal forbearance, to bring the monthly payments down to as low as 31 percent of the borrower’s gross (pre-tax) income.

To ensure borrowers currently at risk of a foreclosure have the opportunity to apply for a Home Affordable Modification, Fannie Mae servicers have been directed not to proceed with a foreclosure until a borrower has been evaluated for the program.

Ralph R. Roberts, GRI, CRS Award-Winning REALTOR® and Author Loan Modification For Dummies (avail. Summer 2009)