January 2017 Highlights

Total refinance volume fell in January 2017 as mortgage rates continued to increase in December. Mortgage rates decreased in January: the average interest rate on a 30‐year fixed rate mortgage fell to 4.15 percent from 4.20 percent in December.

Additional January highlights include the following:

• Borrowers completed 4,553 refinances through HARP, bringing total refinances from the inception of the program to 3,452,224.
• HARP volume represented 2 percent of total refinance volume.
• Borrowers with loan‐to‐value ratios greater than 105 percent accounted for 16 percent of the volume of HARP loans.
• Five percent of the loans refinanced through HARP had a loan-to‐value ratio greater than 125 percent.
• Seventeen percent of HARP refinances for underwater borrowers were for shorter‐term 15‐ and 20‐year mortgages, which build equity faster than traditional 30‐year mortgages.
• HARP refinances represented 4 or more percent of total refinances in Nevada, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, and Illinois,
  double the 2 percent of total refinances nationwide over the same period.

Borrowers who refinanced through HARP had a lower delinquency rate compared to borrowers eligible for HARP who did not refinance through the program.
Ten states accounted for over 60 percent of the nation's HARP eligible loans with a refinance incentive as of September 30, 2016.