April 4, 2009, marked the official start of the Making Home Affordable refinance program.

This should help a pretty big number of NH homeowners by ignoring the current value of the home and approving the NH mortgage based on the other, typical criteria (credit and ability to repay).

NH mortgage applicants have to meet a few basic qualifications to take advantage of the Making Home Affordable refinance program.

First, your existing home loan must be backed by either Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. Thankfully, both companies provide online lookup services. Start with the Fannie Mae site because Fannie has a greater market share and because Freddie Mac's site requires your social security number.

Next, you must have a perfect mortgage payment history over the last 12 months. Even one payment made 30 days late disqualifies you from participating in the Making Home Affordable program. It is okay, however, if you were 20 days late on your payment and incurred late fees.

And lastly, the balance on your mortgage cannot exceed your home's value by more than 5%. The math formula is (Mortgage Balance) / (Home Value). If the quotient is greater than 1.05 then your loan-to-value exceeds 105% and you are not eligible for Making Home Affordable.

Here are a few other things to keep in mind before you call a NH Mortgage lender (like me!):

1. If your current NH mortgage doesn't have mortgage insurance, you won't have to pay it after refinancing -- even if your new loan-to-value is greater than 80%. 2. All refinances require income verification -- even if the original mortgage was a stated income loan. 3. Second mortgages cannot be paid off using loan proceeds -- they must be subordinated

There are other guidelines, too, and both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have dedicated portions of their website to the Making Home Affordable program. To the layperson, unfortunately, the information may be a bit technical.

If you have a NH mortgage and you have specific questions about the Making Home Affordable program and your own eligibility, first check to see if Fannie or Freddie is backing your loan. If they are, pick up the phone and call me to plan the next steps. While, the program doesn't end until June 10, 2010 , low NH mortgage rates probably won't last that long.