Fannie and Freddie to Suspend Foreclosures

[swag]

Source: Calculated Risk

Press Release from Fannie Mae (no link yet): Fannie Mae to Suspend Foreclosures Until January

In order to support the streamlined modification program announced on November 11, 2008, Fannie Mae (NYSE: FNM) today issued a notice to its loan servicing organizations and retained foreclosure attorneys directing them to suspend foreclosure sales on occupied single-family properties as well as the completion of evictions from occupied single-family properties scheduled to occur from November 26, 2008 until January 9, 2009.

The temporary suspension of foreclosures is designed to allow affected borrowers facing foreclosure to retain their homes while Fannie Mae works with mortgage servicers to implement the streamlined modification program scheduled to launch December 15.

Freddie Mac also announced they are suspending foreclosures.

Read more: http://calculatedrisk.blogspot.com/2008/11/fannie-and-freddie-to-suspend.html

[cal04]

1. Fannie, Freddie to halt foreclosures over holidays

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac said late Thursday that they will temporarily suspend foreclosures on occupied homes while the companies work on a streamlined modification program expected out in December. Fannie and Freddie will not foreclose on occupied homes from Nov. 26 to Jan. 9. Fannie said it will reach out to 10,000 affected borrowers and Freddie will reach out to 6,000 affected borrowers.

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/Fannie-Freddie-halt-foreclosures-over/story.aspx?guid=%7BCDFB6B4D%2D8CA6%2D434F%2DAE01%2D0AC74185D4E9%7D&dist=hplatest


updated

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/Freddie-Fannie-suspend-foreclosure-sales/story.aspx?guid=%7B2CAB11B6%2DD30C%2D4DA8%2D8D9B%2D6AC23798A4E3%7D&dist=hplatest

[Earth_First]

3. '16,000 affected borrowers'

Excuse the cynicism, and I laud the measures taken to renegotiate the terms for these 16,000 families; however...

The problem is much, much larger than 16,000 mortgages.

[martymar64]

2. A step in the right direction

[BumRushDaShow]

4. On AP now...

Link at MSNBC.com: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27828403/

I agree with a previous poster regarding WAY more than 16,000 needing help!

[Juan_de_la_Dem]

5. Best news I've heard all day

[Waiting For Everyman]

6. Thanks swag, much appreciated that you posted this news.

Trouble is though, homeowners almost never know who holds their mortgage. Employees of servicing banks can be fired for revealing that... even though all of these "relief programs" so far depend on who the holder of the paper is, and the programs of each one are all different.

[babylonsister]

7. Until January 2009. How nice. Longer term I suspect would have been

nicer.

[robinlynne]

8. That's great!

[soothsayer]

9. woohoo! stop paying yer mortgage and use the money for christmas..!

[exboyfil]

10. Unfortunately that is the moral hazard associated with foreclosure relief

When the crappy bail out was being discussed, an economist was floating a plan (called Plan B) that would have done two things. The first would have been to wipe out the equity owners in the troubled financial institutions and put the debt holders in the equity position. From there they could have renegotiated executive compensation etc. - kind of like a really quick bankruptcy.

The other thing was to only rescue troubled mortgages (and I mean all troubled ones) in communities in which met a certain threshold for spiraling downward. I would go along with such a plan more than all troubled mortgages being renegotiated.

I still cannot see the justification for helping mortgage holders or the banks who loaned them the money for houses over the median price for example. They had no business buying those houses in the first place. I kept asking myself how a couple just out of college could be buying a house 2 to 3 times the value of my house, and now I understand how they did it. Why should they get relief?

We need to let housing prices find their natural bottom. They were overinflated when compared to the CPI, and the bubble burst. Using tax dollars to keep the bubble inflated makes no sense.

[Javaman]

11. how will these 16k foreclosures be picked?

friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends of friends...

[melm00se]

12. HSBC

has issued the following:

For the 2008 Holiday Season, HSBC Consumer and Mortgage Lending will suspend Foreclosure Sales

as follows:

December 24th through 26th . Christmas Holiday

This applies to HSBC CL, HSBC CLMS and HSBC MS files currently in LPS Desktop.