The Art of Living Better

When homeowners visit the RateMarketplace™ official website, they may be stunned to discover that they are actually wasting thousands of dollars every single year.

The Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) is a federal government program designed to help middle-class American homeowners refinance their mortgages as part of the U.S. housing relief effort. Taking advantage of the program could help you reduce your payments by $4,905 each year. Because banks make more money by keeping you at higher mortgage rates that they negotiated years ago, they do everything in their power to keep homeowners from finding out about these new HARP rates.

Professional and trusted financial advisors like Suze Orman, Jim Cramer, and Dave Ramsey and Warren Buffett have all spoken of the benefits of refinancing by finding the best mortgage rates available. Additionally, when banks cut rates for homeowners, it puts more money in the pockets of middle-class Americans, ultimately boosting the economy. "People can really take advantage of this," Obama recently said in Washington, DC, urging homeowners to refinance sooner rather than later. If your mortgage rate is more than 3%, you could be saving thousands.

How much could you save?

The average monthly savings is $250/month. For example, if your current rate is 6.75%, here's a breakdown of how much you could be saving with a new rate of 3.25% (based on the rate that many homeowners received from lenders years ago):

Saving more than $150,000 over the life of your mortgage is realistic.

But how do you get there?

We spoke with top financial experts and came up with 5 easy tips to help you save time, money, and pay off your mortgage:

1. Refinance. Your mortgage was probably negotiated years ago, and may be as high as 6.75%. Refinancing will help you drop your rates significantly.
2. Shop Around. You have the option to get quotes from multiple lenders (not just your current lender) and compare rates. Understanding what different lenders are willing to offer you will give you a good idea of how much you can save.
3. Find HARP lenders. Not all lenders consider the HARP program when providing quotes. Be sure to check with lenders who will.
4. Shorten your term. With lower interest rates, you can put the amount you save on interest toward your payments, shortening your term and paying even less in the long run. 
5. Don't delay. Like most great government programs, this one is expected to end soon. The good news is that once you're locked in, your savings are permanent. The sooner you make a change, the more you'll save.

How do you get started?

This may seem like a lot of information to take in, so we did some research to find the best tools out there to help you refinance your mortgage. RateMarketplace, one of the country's largest and most respected refinance comparison websites, is one of the few companies with HARP lenders on its network. The best part? It's 100% free. So see below how much you can save!