If you are a homeowner who would like mortgage relief, President Obama is trying to make it easier for you. Today he will be announcing some changes to the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) that will make it easier to get accepted into the program.

Refinancing now when interest rates are so low is something that many homeowners can greatly benefit from. Being able to secure a lower interest loan may be the difference between being able to keep a home or being foreclosed. FHFA which is the Federal Housing Finance Industry has put out this important PDF which goes over the changes you need to know to see if you can qualify for assistance from HARP. Your very first step is to determine whether your mortgage loan is owned by Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae because it needs to be to qualify. If it is not owned but guaranteed by either of the two, that would qualify as well.

One of the main changes to HARP is that there will no longer be any loan to value limit on a fixed rate mortgage to be accepted under HARP. Homeowners who have adjustable rate mortgages have to have their LTV under 105%.

These changes to HARP will be in the works during November and December of 2011but may not be available until the first quarter of 2012. President Obama does not need approval from Congress for this so you don’t have to worry about bipartisan bickering which would stall it.

The Home Affordable Refinance Program was intended to help people in need to be able to get better interest rates on their mortgage so they could keep their homes. States like Nevada, California, Arizona, and Florida have been the hardest hit during this foreclosure crises and have seen home values go down the most there. These new enhanced HARP rules will make refinancing a real option for more homeowners in their time of need, something the government should be doing.

The same thing can be said about the Obama free money program also known as stimulus grants. A lot of companies and government agencies are benefitting but others are not which leaves some out in the cold. All across America there is a feeling of entitlement and those that aren’t benefitting from the bailouts are upset.

Now that home forclosures and mortgage rates have been pushed back to the second page of the news, one wonders whether more Obama forclosures and trouble is just around the corner? The stock market has gone from the 6,000′s up to around 9,000 and people are starting to feel good again. Yes, unemployment is still high but you just don’t hear the same panic you did several months ago. It seems too many people are assuming the worst is over and we are on our way back up. But what if we aren’t?

This comes from Mike Jacka’s Real Estate Investing blog:

“All this activity is the reason the experts are predicting that we have reached the bottom of the market and that we are in the recovery stage. I hope that I am the foul and they are right. Because I think we have only seen the calm of the eye of the storm. I think that later this year, we will see a huge number of foreclosures hitting the market and the first time home buyers will be out of the market when the $8,000 tax credit expires. I also believe that with all the stimulus and spending that the Obama administration is doing will prolong the housing recovery with all the job losses and the massive tax increases, if they get everything that they want passed.”

The Obama mortgage help plan did work a little the first time around but what is he going to do if there is another crises right around the corner? And it seems everyone seems to forget who is paying for the bailouts: the American taxpayers are the ones paying for these foreclosures by way of higher taxes. Don’t let anybody fool you about that!