photo credit: ThePatronSaint
Freddie Mac announced on January 6th that they will soon "give mortgage servicers a longer leash when it comes to working with unemployed borrowers." On Feburary 1st, unemployed borrowers may be eligible for up to a full year of forbearance on their mortgage loans. Indeed, this is welcome news to the 5.6 million Americans who have been without work for several months.
Freddie Mac's senior vice president of single-family servicing and REO, Tracy Mooney, explains, "These expanded forbearance periods will provide families facing prolonged periods of unemployment with a greater measure of security by giving them more time to find new employment and resolve their delinquencies. We believe this will put more families back on track to successful long-term homeownership."
Until recently, Freddie Mac has let mortgage servicers to provide three months of forbearance or six months of reduced payments to unemployed homeowners "without approval from the government-sponsored enterprise." But now, loan servicers are being permitted to begin the six months of forbearance right away and then, at a later date, Freddie Mac can approve an additional six months of forbearance.
