Fannie Mae Announces Expanding Refinance Eligibility with RefiNow Option

Today, Fannie Mae updated Lender Letter LL-2021-10, Expanding Refinance Eligibility with RefiNow™, communicating changes to its single-family sellers, including:

• Increasing the borrower income limit to allow up to 100% of the applicable area median income (AMI) limit.
• Eliminating the maximum loan seasoning requirement of 10 years.
• Removing the $5,000 cap on the financing of closing costs, prepaid items, and points.
• Allowing any reduction to the monthly mortgage payment instead of requiring a minimum reduction of $50.

We are providing updated analysis that estimates the size of the potential eligible loan population based on the expanded RefiNow eligibility criteria. Data provided in this analysis is an estimate of loans in Fannie Mae MBS pools as of August 31, 2021 and loans currently in Fannie Mae Connecticut Avenue Securities® (CAS) and Credit Insurance Risk Transfer™ (CIRT™) reference pools as of July 31, 2021. This data is based on various assumptions as outlined in the document.

For questions, please contact the Fannie Mae Investor Help Line at 1-800-232-6643, Option 3 or by e-mail.