Purchasing a new primary residence, but have refinanced our existing one within the last 4 months. (loans, interest rate)

[kbochat]

Hello Everyone,

My wife and I recently refinanced our 2 bedroom condo from 6.5 to 4.0 to take advantage of the low rates. We have been in the home for 5 years, and have never refinanced before. The mortgage is in my wife's name because she bought the home before we were married.

A home came on the market in our area that we could not say no to. We started the approval process and thought everything was squared away. The new home would be our primary residence and our other home would become something yet to be determined (most likely a rental because of how underwater our whole neighborhood is).

We thought we had everything squared away where we would purchase the home together with our joint income which puts us way above the requirements for the debt to income ratio. We had secured a low interest rate of 4.00% as part of the GFE. We also talked to the company who did our refinance on the current home and they gave us the green light to purchase the new home as the primary residence. So there should not be an issue with the new home being our primary residence.

Now the broker is coming back to us and saying the underwriter says we have to finance the new home as an investment property, put 25% down vs. 20%, and up the rate to 4.5%. They told us we could refinance in 3 months maybe to get a lower rate, and we have to bring more to closing to cover the additional .5% and closing costs.

So my question(s) are:

1. Do we have any better options? Are there any follow up questions or something we can do to help us?
2. Is this normal? We are not skeptical people, but something seems out of whack.


Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated.

[aneftp]

1. Did u use a harp refinance for her condo? I believe some harp refinance for loans require use of the home for 12 months as primary residence.

[kbochat]

Yes I believe it was a HARP refinance. We have however gone through the process listed below and asked for in writing an option to move forward with the new home.

[FONT=&quot]Borrower shall occupy, establish, and use the Property as Borrower’s principal residence within 60 days after the execution of this Security Instrument and shall continue to occupy the Property as Borrower’s principal residence for at least one year after the date of occupancy, unless Lender otherwise agrees in writing, which consent shall not be unreasonably withheld, or unless extenuating circumstances exist which are beyond Borrower’s control....[/FONT][FONT=&quot] [/FONT]