The Art of Living Better

Refinancing Now Could Save You Thousands Per Year

One of the best-kept secrets behind saving money is a government program called the Home Affordable Refinance Plan (HARP), and taking advantage of it now could benefit millions of American homeowners. By refinancing their homes at shockingly low rates, homeowners can reduce their payments by as much as $4,095 each year.

Like most helpful government programs, though, this benefit is unlikely ot last. The good news is that once you’re in, you’re in. If lowering your payments, reducing the number of years on your mortgage, and even taking some cash equity out of the deal would help you, the time to act is right now.

A true middle-class stimulus package

Did you know that the Home Affordable Refinance Program is designed to help middle-class Americans? If your mortgage is less than $625,000, your chances of qualifying are high. The Government wants banks to cut your rates, which puts more money in your pocket, ultimately boosting the economy.

But the banks are not happy about this. Here’s why:

1. You have the option to shop lenders other than your current mortgage holder
2. Your home’s Loan-to-value (LTV) may be 80% to 125%

Banks will make more money if they keep middle-class Americans at the higher mortgage rate that they negotiated years ago, so they are putting pressure on the Government to reverse this program. "People can really take advantage of this," Obama recently said in Washington, DC, urging homeowners to refinance sooner rather than later¹. The middle class seems to miss out on everything, and jumping on this benefit is a no-brainer. Act fast to refinance your house at these near-historic low refinance rates. If your mortgage rate is higher than 3.11%, you could be saving thousands.

• The average monthly savings is $250. Could you use an extra $250/month?
• On top of additional monthly savings, many homeowners also shorten their term.
• The rates are at an all-time low right now, meaning that taking a little cash equity for home improvements, a vacation, or a boost to the savings account is a viable option.

How much could you be saving?

Here's an example of how much you could be saving by a rate of 3.25% and 6.75% (based on the rate that many homeowners received from lenders years ago)

So, over the life of your mortgage, you could save more than $150,000. That’s just by lowering your “already good” rate of 6.75% to an even lower 3.25%.

Acting now could lower your payment and shorten your term significantly. There’s no downside to checking out the this once-in-a-lifetime “break” for the middle-class.

How do you find the lowest possible rates?

The trick to finding the lowest rate is to utilize free websites that will compare available mortgage rates for consumers, allowing them to choose the best one. Our research found that 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 good news is that their services are free to homeowners like you.

There’s no obligation to homeowners, and RateMarketplace offers easy and fast comparisons. It takes about five minutes, and the service is 100% free. You have nothing to lose, except for your money problems!

Act now, and you could save thousands.