Is Your Home Underwater? Behind on Your Payments?

May 26, 2011 (Brian Michael)

According to a recent poll by Rasmussen, 51 percent of homeowners believe that they owe more on their mortgage than their home is worth, and if you are underwater or behind on your payments, the Treasury Department and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) have introduced a way to help you find answers.

As part of the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), both agencies have jointly launched a new website called CheckMyNPV.com, to assist homeowners in understanding the HAMP net present value (NPV) process.

Their goal is to provide an easy to use tool for homeowners to conduct a self-evaluation of their mortgage and present a guide to open dialogue between homeowners and mortgage servicers.

Designed as a self-service, self-education tool, homeowners can use the website to learn more about the HAMP process and the NPV process which uses the same underlying formula required by HAMP servicers.

Users can go to the website and enter NPV input values provided by their mortgage servicer or substitute with estimated values and CheckMyNPV.com will provide a proposed interest rate, term (number of payments), and forbearance amount for your modification.

The tool can be used by homeowners prior to applying for HAMP loan modification to help them better understand the NPV evaluation process and it can also be used by homeowners who have been denied a HAMP loan modification to compare against their Non-Approval Notice for a discussion with their mortgage servicer about what additional options may be available for you.

It is important to note that CheckMyNPV.com provides only an estimate of a mortgage servicer’s NPV evaluation. The CheckMyNPV.com formula is required to be the same as that used by mortgage servicers in evaluating a mortgage for HAMP, but differences in input data (such as those you entered during the CheckMyNPV.com evaluation) and other industry-related data used by the NPV formula may result in different outputs.

The results don’t guarantee a loan modification as there is other criteria and information that will be needed to see if you qualify, but it does give you the ability to gain a better understanding of the HAMP process and a better understanding of the options that are available to you when talking to your mortgage servicer.

If you’d like to learn more, start the process at the CheckMyNPV,com website.

Tags: underwater home, behind on payments, Treasury Department, HUD, HAMP, net present value, mortgage self-evaluation, homeowners, mortgage servicers, loan modifications

Sources:
Rasmussen Reports