By Sean A. Kelly

During the recent recession, many mortgage companies and financial institutions had to shut down their businesses as they failed to cope with the economic downturn. When that happens, many consumers with low or moderate incomes may also find it difficult to buy or refinance a home as mortgage companies and financial institutions that did not shut down may not be able to offer the type of loan that they can afford. Once the federal government came up with new solutions to make home buying more affordable for many consumers, US Bank Home Mortgage also started playing their part in order to improve the property business in the country as well as helping more consumers to be able to afford buying a home.

US Bank Home Mortgage may be one of the major financial institutions that offer the Making Home Affordable program as announced by the U.S. Treasury Department as one of the government’s proactive efforts to help boost the property market and allow eligible borrowers to refinance or modify their mortgage loans so that they can better afford the payments. The idea is to assist families to lower their monthly payments and avoid foreclosure as well as foreclosure scams. You may think that by doing so the bank may be losing more money as the reduced payments may mean that they would be making less money than before. However, compared to the extremely high cost of foreclosure and the possibility of losing all their money, US Bank may at least be able to gain back some of their money from their consumers.

Under the Making Home Affordable program, US Bank rates and mortgages offer considerably lower interest rates to meet the requirements of the program to enable home buyers to refinance their home and reduce their monthly payments. Of course, consumers may have the option of refinancing or modifying their loans but with lower interest rates. In general, the rate may be based on market rates in effect at the time of the refinance and modification application. Home owners may also be subject to any associated point and fees. Even though the interest rate also depends slightly upon the discretion of US Bank, it may still be lower depending on the eligibility of the applicants. The upside is that the refinanced loans may not have any prepayment penalty or balloon payments.

Home owners may also apply for US Bank Refinance Home Loans under the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) in order to be able to maintain ownership of their own homes. In this time of bad economy it may be harder to keep your home than to lose it. In order to qualify for a HARP refinance with US Bank you may have to ensure that your current mortgage is backed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. If it is then you may proceed to contact a US Bank loan officer to apply. Of course, it would help speed up your application process if you could gather enough information prior to applying such as your gross income pay stubs, income tax returns, any junior lien mortgage on your home and also account balances of your credit cards and other debts.

The HARP program is designed to help consumers maintain ownership on their home during the global recession and the US Bank clearly supports the government’s efforts to improve the current state of the property market. Basically by doing so, US Bank may also benefit from the program as they too may have the opportunity to recover their losses should their consumers be forced to foreclose.

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