President Barack Obama’s Mortgage Modification Or Refinance Stimulus Plan

President Barack Obama is well aware that the current economic situation in the country leaves a lot of homeowners struggling. Housing prices have crashed and the all time high number of foreclosures does not help that at all, lowering surrounding homes values by as much as 9%. Home and property values have dropped so far that many homeowners now owe more on their mortgage than their home is actually worth. Due to these problems, the Obama administration has introduced the housing and homeowner stimulus plan. This plan was announced in February and has started this month. Most people no longer have 20% equity in their homes, which is typically required for traditional mortgage refinancing, due to the dropping home prices. The stimulus plan from President Obama is going to make it easier for homeowners to modify or refinance their current home mortgage and have more manageable monthly payments and avoid a possible foreclosure. The goal of this home mortgage stimulus plan is to help over 5 million homeowners stay in their homes and avoid foreclosure or defaulting on their loan. This is done by giving incentives to mortgage lenders to use their new guidelines for approving a mortgage refinance. So with more incentives and less risk to mortgage lenders are going to be more flexible on who can refinance, how much they can save, and finding financially affordable monthly mortgage payments.Homeowners looking to refinance or modify their current mortgages will get their loans restructured by mortgage lenders. With this plan, the maximum allowable monthly mortgage payment can not exceed 38% of the homeowners gross monthly income. Mortgage lenders will also get a dollars for dollar incentive from the government to further lower the monthly payments to 31% of the homeowners gross monthly income. This is great news for a lot of homeowners who are out of work or just struggling to make their monthly mortgage payment. A lot of homeowners currently pay 40% or even 50% of their income towards their mortgage. A 20% reduction would add up to a lot of saved money every month.The Treasury of the United States has an exact series of guidelines for mortgage lenders and banks to complete when refinancing or modifying a home mortgage loan. In the past for example, mortgage loans have been refinanced or modified by adding on missed payments to the loans principal which basically did nothing to reduce the monthly payment. The housing mortgage refinance stimulus plan announced by Obama will mean a great amount of savings for millions of homeowners.