Tiffany Edwards thought she was running out of time to persuade her lender to work out a new loan so her growing family could stay in their Tampa home. She had been out of work for more than a year, and her husband’s income wasn’t enough to cover all the family’s bills. She found a job a few weeks ago, but her lender was already set to foreclose on the house – likely before Christmas. With a 3-year old daughter and a baby on the way, Edwards panicked. Last week Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac announced that the nation’s two largest providers of mortgage loans – will postpone foreclosures until early January. In the meantime, they will try to work out home loan modifications so more homeowners can keep their homes. “What a stress relief,” Edwards said. “Now I have hope we’re going to be able to work something out.” The Edwards’ are one of about 16,000 families nationwide who are eligible for the help. The foreclosure suspension is exactly the kind of action some economists and industry leaders say is needed as the foreclosure crisis weighs down the entire economy.
Florida Governor Charlie Crist is considering a way to get mortgage lenders to agree to a moratorium on foreclosures until after the holidays. There were cheers when Fannie and Freddie agreed to hold off on some foreclosures. But now that the dust is settling, many wonder how significant the action will really be. After January 9, the people helped by the foreclosure reprieve could still lose their house. Even if all those homeowners work out new home loans, they still represent a small percentage of the more than 2 million homes that are expected to be lost in foreclosure before late 2009. “This is great, it really is,” said Debbi Colon, a Catholic Charities foreclosure counselor who has worked with the Edwards family. “But it’s just a first step.”
After the announcement last week, her phone rang all day and night from clients wondering if they qualified for the reprieve, Colon said. Most don’t, she said, because their loans are held by private companies. That’s the downside of the plan, Colon said. Only homeowners with home loans owned by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are eligible. Together, the two companies own only about 20% of the nation’s delinquent loans. Of the mortgage loans that Fannie and Freddie own, not all of them are eligible for the reprieve. Homeowners must be still living in the home and must be at least 3 months behind on their payments. Read complete article written by By SHANNON BEHNKEN
A mortgage loan modification is a popular option for homeowners that don’t want to wait for their lenders to provide mortgage relief. Short refinancing with Hope for Homeowners is another option, but FHA home loans are not as easy to qualify for because the debt ratio needs to be below the 50% threshold.
