Oregon will start with about 50 borrowers in one county. Other states may try similar efforts, according to the people familiar with the project.
New efforts to expand refinancing won’t be limited to aid for homeowners with privately owned loans. Senators Robert Menendez of New Jersey and Barbara Boxer of California, both Democrats, plan to introduce as soon as this week a new version of a bill that didn’t advance last year. It would expand HARP by promising lenders they won’t be forced to absorb the loss on refinanced loans that default.
“We’ve come five plus years since the onset of the crisis, and we have learned a number of painful lessons about how the modification and refinancing processes work,” Boltansky said. “Now, we’re in a better position to take advantage of some of these refinancing programs.”