The rules of the mortgage business are always changing - and the most recent change is to the FHA streamline program. If you currently have an FHA loan, now is the time to refinance before the upcoming FHA streamline changes take effect.

Recently, there an new announcement from HUD and as a result, on November 17 of this year, the rules of the FHA streamline program are going to make it more difficult to refinance.

For anyone who was living in their home where they owe more than it is worth, the FHA streamline program has been great because it allows you to refinance even though you don't have any equity in the property due to the no-appraisal FHA streamline option.

Before the announcement, for the FHA refinance streamline program , it was a no-income, no asset, no credit score (although this changed for many lenders recently, not all), no appraisal program. Now with the upcoming changes, these things are really no longer true.

What does all this mean? In short -- if you currently have an FHA loan that is a higher than 5.5% rate -- now is the time to refinance... before the rules change.