Stimulus Refinancing Initiative

Under current rules, those families who own less than 20% equity in their homes have a difficult time refinancing and taking advantage of the historically low interest rates. This initiative is open to homeowners who have conforming loans which are guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and who owe up to 5% more than their home is worth.
According to the plan, "credit-worthy" or "responsible" homeowners can refinance their mortgage into a 30- or 15-year, fixed-rate loan based on current market rates. The refinanced loan, however, cannot include prepayment penalties or balloon payments. For many families, this low-cost refinancing may help reduce their mortgage payments by up to thousands of dollars per year.
As with the rest of the plan, details about this initiative will be released at a future date--including what, if any, credit score requirements will be included.

January 09 vs January 08

The Charleston MLS was off about 42% in number of transactions in Jan 09 compared to Jan 08. The average price was off about 12%.

This follows the year of 2008 that saw a decline of 32% in number of transactions and a decline of 2% in price compared to 2007.