Refinancing volume remained high in February with more than 463,000 transactions completed through Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae (the GSEs) during the month, down only slightly from 469,953 in January.  Of the February total 294,303 were purchased or guaranteed by Fannie Mae and 169,501 by Freddie Mac.  In February 2012 refinances totaled 335,031. 

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) said in its Refinance Report Tuesday that 97,738 or 21 percent of the refinances were completed through the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP).   Both the number of HARP refinances and the market share were virtually unchanged from January. 

Since the HARP program was begun in April 2009 more than 2.3 million homeowners have used it to refinance high loan-to-value (LTV) ratio or underwater mortgages.  Nearly 1.3 million of those refinances have taken place since the program was substantially revamped in late 2011.

Borrowers with LTV ratios greater than 105 percent accounted for 45 percent of the HARP loans in February and 22 percent had LTV ratios over 125 percent.  The latter group of homeowners were not eligible for the program before the LTV cap was eliminated by those 2011 program revisions. 

Another revision to the program created incentives for borrowers to refinance into shorter term mortgages in order to rebuild their equity more quickly.  In February 18 percent of HARP refinances were for shorter-term 15- and 20-year mortgages, twice the percentage as just before the program changes.

FHFA recently announced it has extended HARP for two more years and will soon launch a nationwide campaign to educate and encourage homeowners to learn about HARP eligibility requirements. HARP was set to expire Dec. 31 of this year.