I had covered earlier, that Bush had announced plans to help borrowers avoid foreclosure. At the moment it was rhetoric as we didn’t quite understand what would be required of homeowners in order to qualify for the assistance.

Well, today those details have come. Big thanks to CreditBloggers for breaking it:

It’s been tricky trying to find details about the FHA insured refinance plan President Bush announced last Friday. All we knew was that the plan could help 80,000 homebuyers who struggled with an ARM reset to refinance into lower terms. An online Q&A session with HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson cleared up a few points. The refinance program is being called FHASecure and to qualify a borrower must have: A history of on-time mortgage payments before the borrower’s teaser rates expired and loans reset Interest rates must have or will reset between June 2005 and December 2008 Three percent cash or equity in the home A sustained history of employment Sufficient income to make the mortgage payment Borrowers must also be occupants of the house they are trying to refinance and have a mortgage below the insured loan limit for your area ($263,150 in Arizona).

More from HUD:

President George W. Bush today announced that HUD’s Federal Housing Administration (FHA) will help an estimated 240,000 families avoid foreclosure by enhancing its refinancing program effective immediately. Under the new FHASecure plan, FHA will allow families with strong credit histories who had been making timely mortgage payments before their loans reset-but are now in default-to qualify for refinancing. “Many hard-working American families who were able to make their mortgage payments under the initial teaser terms of the exotic loan are now struggling to make ends meet because their rates have doubled or tripled,” said HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson. “FHASecure will bring stability to the housing market and give eligible families who were in good financial standing before their loans reset a chance to keep their homes.” “FHASecure is designed for families who are good borrowers but were steered into high-cost loans with teaser rates,” said Assistant Secretary for Housing-FHA Commissioner Brian Montgomery. “These homeowners, many of whom are minorities, need a safe, affordable mortgage product that will help build wealth. All FHA borrowers pay mortgage insurance premiums to offset claims to the FHA insurance fund and ultimately prevent risk to the taxpayer.”

The caveat seems to be though, that while the FHA limits are somewhat reasonable given today’s market. How many have the equity to cover what’s between the limit of $263,150 (in Arizona), and their loan amount at the peak of the market boom?