USDA Rural Refinance
The new USDA Pilot Refinance home loan program is now available to thousands of rural homeowners in Florida. The new USDA Rural Development Pilot Refinance mortgage will allow Florida’s rural homeowners to refinance their mortgage into a lower interest rate regardless of the home loan to value. Even “upside down” and underwater loans qualify with this new program.
There are no out of pocket costs to the homeowner as closing costs can now be included in the new USDA mortgage. To be eligible for the new USDA rural refinance program, FL homeowners must currently have either a direct USDA loan or a USDA 502 guarantee mortgage. Please note you must currently have a USDA rural housing mortgage to be eligible for the program. If you have a conventional loan or FHA loan there are different options available.
The new USDA Housing Refinance program will cut through the red tape normally seen with traditional bank refinancing and potentially save borrowers hundreds of dollars a month. To be eligible, borrowers must have made their mortgage payments on time for 12 consecutive months. There are more than 20,000 borrowers eligible in Florida alone – many homeowners just outside of Tampa, Jacksonville, Tallahassee, Orlando, Lakeland, Ocala, Gainesville are eligible!
Requirements of the new USDA Rural Refinance Pilot program include:
- You must currently have a USDA or Rural Housing mortgage. Regardless of your current mortgage servicer (Chase, Bank Of America, Regions, etc) we can help!
- No mortgage late payments in the last 12 months.
- Mobile or Manufactured home are NOT permitted.
- The new term of the USDA refinance must be 30 years fix mortgage.
- The upfront USDA guarantee fee is 2% (as of Oct 2012) which will be roll into the new loan.
- The applicable USDA annual/monthly fee will be .40% (as of October 2012)
- The new loan may include the principle balance of the existing loan plus the upfront USDA guarantee fee of 2% and ALL closing costs.
- No cash out is permitted with the USDA refinance program.
- Income verification for all adult household members is required for USDA income eligibility only, not for determining repayment ability. Current USDA household income limits can be found here
- Borrowers must be employed at the time of closing on the refinance transaction or have alternate sources of income, such as: retirement income, social security income, disability income, alimony, or child support.
- The loan to value (LTV) cap is unlimited. No restrictions for home owners that are “underwater” and have seen their home value decrease in recent years. No new appraisal or home inspection is needed!
The primary purpose of the USDA refi program is to help Florida’s rural residences that have done everything right, but may have lost significant equity in their home as a result of recent market changes. Many Florida homeowners have made their mortgage payments on time but could not take advantage of the historic low interests because of deprecation in home values and equity restriction put in place by most lenders and banks. This new USDA Pilot Refinance program is designed to help homeowners, regardless of current loan to value or negative equity.
Questions about the Florida streamline USDA refinance mortgage? Just submit the quick information request form (upper right side of this page) or call us 7 days a week/ 9am-8pm at 904-302-6060 Please also be sure to view the USDA refinance video to the right and view the most frequently asked questions here. Please note we currently only assist homeowners with properties located in Florida.
Florida homeowners that have a Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac conventional mortgage can learn more about the Home Florida Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP 2.0) by clicking here. The new version of Home Affordable Refinance Program (know as HARP 2) will allow unlimited loan to value which is the most significant change – so no more restrictions on how much a homeowner is “under water” on their mortgage.
Homeowners with a FHA mortgage can click here to learn about the FHA streamline refinance.
