Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Halting Foreclosures During Holidays

WASHINGTON — Mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are suspending foreclosures for about 16,000 households during the holiday season.

The two companies said Thursday that they will halt foreclosure sales between Nov. 26 and Jan. 9, while they evaluate whether borrowers qualify for a new loan modification program announced last week.

Fannie Mae said about 10,000 households would be affected, while Freddie Mac said the changes would affect about 6,000 borrowers who are facing foreclosure. The change does not apply to vacant homes.

The announcement "provides a new measure of certainty to many of these families during the holidays," Freddie Mac Chief Executive David Moffett said in a release.

Both Fannie and Freddie were seized by the government on Sept. 7. The companies' former CEOs were ousted and the government now has direct control over the pair.

Fannie and Freddie's loan modification plan aims to help abate the foreclosure crisis by aiding homeowners who have fallen at least three months behind on their payments, but only if their loans are held by the two companies.

Under the program, the new primary mortgage payments _ including taxes and insurance _shouldn't total more than 38 percent of homeowners' pretax monthly income.

Fannie and Freddie are the dominant players in the U.S. mortgage market but hold only 20 percent of delinquent loans. Ultimately about 400,000 households are likely to qualify for the loan modification program, according to Priya Misra, a mortgage analyst with Barclays Capital.

By contrast, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. estimates that more than 4.4 million borrowers will become delinquent by the end of next year, not including loans backed by Fannie and Freddie.

Comments

[MIMom]

Oh no! Rachel's gonna show it again!

[SaviourMachine]

I can't watch.I just stopped the b l e e d i n g from the last viewing.

[mdmpo]

At least she gave warning!

[rbarry647]

Yuck - please stop showing it before you drive me to Tofu Turkey

[ThunderclapNewman]

Heh.

[MontanaHome]

Not watching tv -- SP is ki.l.ling a turkey? Probably with a gleeful smile on her face?

[ThunderclapNewman]

Even better---she's "pardoning" a turkey while others are being slaughtered behind her, while she babbles on in her usual witless manner.

It'll be a YouTube classic.

[BabsfromKansas]

Do turkeys run around with their heads cut off???

[myangeldog1]

No she used it as wallpaper during her "turkey pardon" interview? I mean how weird is THAT?! The reporter warned parents to get their kids out of the room!

[Coyote2]

Breakfasta­tTiffanys1 posted: "I'm thinking Palin put that turkey in a wood chipper like in Fargo."

~
If that Wendigo, Sarah Palin, returns, we better look out; cause she will put lots of folks into industrial shredders. Her career must be stopped now.

[williamg]

And I will enjoy watching (helping) it happen.

[SaviourMachine]

Hey where did everyone go?

[BabsfromKansas]

out stripping copper piping off of foreclosed houses

[HappyIdiot51]

LOL, that was great! And one great idea!

[Rumplestiltskin]

I'm done. I'm excavating bodies for gold in their teeth.

[ralph10]

Not anymore. Scrap metal ain't worth crap.

[SaviourMachine]

LOL.A goils gotta do whata goils gotta do,Babs.

[MNmommy]

But do you have the neighboring homes blowing up when they try to turn the gas on to heat their homes as well?

I was so heartbroken when that started happening here recently.

I know you were making a funny, but it's getting serious. :(

[MIMom]

I was wondering that myself.

[macbabe]

on the "Clinton Camp Waiting on Obama" thread.. where else LOL

[MontanaHome]

Yep -- can't get enough of that.

As if!

[mdmpo]

You got that right.

[mdmpo]

should be reply to formercon below.

[GeoLee]

Pardon my cynicism, but in which rich Texas suburbs are these 16,000 homes located that will be exempted from foreclosure for the time being ?

[HappyIdiot51]

Cynicism is necessary. I just know I was not one of them. Damn, I should have been nicer.

[Ramirez]

Yo. Just got back from Wal-Mart. Did some shopping with the missus.
So what are you guys discussing now?

1) Sarah Palin

2) Mortgage foreclosures

3) Larry Craig

4) Each other

[HappyIdiot51]

I'm talking to a bunch of great people who have great ideas.

[MIMom]

That is a foreign concept to tr0lls. You may have to explain that further.

[RobertaInCT]

Ramirez...­..........­.

[myangeldog1]

All of the above.

[Rumplestiltskin]

Why you didn't spend a couple extra bucks and buy American. I go out of my way to do that. Ace hardware is generally a good start. If you want to support the Chi-Coms and brag about it, go for it. When I can, I buy American, and I will put up my conservati­ve/liberta­rian creds if you want.

[ralph10]

He went to Walmart to get greeted by McCain.

[Ramirez]

We bought food at Wal-Mart. I don't think we picked up any Chi-com stuff. Couple toys for a nephew. Star Wars stuff. Probably lead based, but he's young and he'll grow out of it.

You're right about Ace hardware. There's one near my house and I love that place. Good prices, great service. Unlike Home Depot where you can stand in one spot waving hundred dollar bills and you can't get anyone to speak to you.

I wish Ace had a bigger inventory.

[BabsfromKansas]

The company that is now the biggest private-sector employer says the average hourly wage of its workers is $10.86. Wal-Mart has said it considers a 34-hour week as full time, though it declined to respond to my questions about this and other employment issues. Assuming the full-time week is 34 hours, a full-time Wal-Mart “associate” averages $19,200 a year. That’s about $2,000 below the 2008 federal poverty level for a family of four.

[MNmommy]

They don't care, as well as they have *theirs*.

It's pathetic.

[myangeldog1]

I was told by a former employee that they keep it under 40 hours so they won't have to pay benefits, most work weeks are 38 -39 hours.

[Ramirez]

Work suxx. We can all agree on that.

Friedman discussed Wal-Mart in "The World is Flat." He said something like Wal-Mart was the best low-income subsidy in America. Said the WalMart shopper saves on the average x thousand dollars a year. Can't remember the number but I think it was as good as getting food stamps from the Man.

[MontanaHome]

Disgraceful.

[SaviourMachine]

That's one of the reasons I don't shop there.

I don't even know where there is one in the L.A. area.Don't care.

[formercon]

We are living the Bush legacy. We will all remember this presidency and tell our grandchildren about the horrors......

[MNmommy]

Remember that quote of Reagan's about what would happen if Medicaid and Medicare should pass? Something about telling our grandchildren how awesome our country used to be before socialism took over - well he had it wrong. It turned out to be what would happen if Uncle Miltie's economic policies took over.

[Rumplestiltskin]

How is that Medicare Ponzi scheme working out? Betcha they start changing it. It was an LBJ program. Part of that "Great Society" thing that really fought "poverty".

[SCG]

Just remember, we had depressions long before any social programs.

[hope]

Well, this is good news.

16,000 unemployed American autoworkers will not have to live in their SUV's this Christmas.

Thank goodness for that.

Those without the Escalade couldn't have put up their tree.

[GrouchoMarxist]

Does this mean that Ralphie's gonna get his Red Rider BB gun?

[RobertaInCT]

Yup, Yup...........made in China.

[Rumplestiltskin]

as long as he keeps his damn tongue off the pole. I've got that lamp in my living room. My son bought it, and loves it.

[Rumplestiltskin]

as long as he keeps his d.amn tongue off the p.ole. I've got that l.amp in my living room. My son bought it, and loves it.

[MichiganJFrog]

That was Flick, and you have just proven to me that you REALLY aren't a Republican at all.

[GrouchoMarxist]

LOL...it suits you, Oddy.

[BabsfromKansas]

in the biblical sense?

[ralph10]

When do they start showing that?

[GrouchoMarxist]

10 minutes after Thanksgiving is over. Where's the CHANGE?

[HappyIdiot51]

It's kind of fun to go back havin' nothin'. I remember those days fondly.

[CBS]

On second thought maybe Palin isn't as stup.id as I thought. She has been criticized for hunt.ing but most of us are planning to have turke.ys for thanksgiving so maybe she is making the point that at least she does her own k.illing while the rest of us are in a bubble about where that bird on the table comes from. Dunno...could be...hmmm.

[MIMom]

You put WAY too much thought into that.

Last I knew, she didn't hunt turkeys.

[GerryS]

turkeys are too smart for bible spice-

[HappyIdiot51]

She tends to prefer hunting wolves from planes, last time I saw.

[mdmpo]

No. She is that stup.id. Why, of all things, would someone make that their backdrop to an incoherent interview.

Average American does not want to see that cr.ap.

She is a fvcking nu.tcase.

[lornejl]

You are much too kind, of course the word filter might be hampering your true feelings ; )

[myangeldog1]

Nope, she's just an nuttier than a fruitcake! Nothing like a good old turkey m u t i l a t i o n to get ya in the holiday spirit, huh?!

[HappyIdiot51]

Lordie, she showed me just how unbelievably soulless she is today. Animals, be damned. We need to eat.

[myangeldog1]

I grew up around hunting and that f r e a k e d me out. Cleaning game shouldn't be a spectator sport or anything......jeez!

[BanausicMetanoia]

Oh no

[SCG]

Stephen Colbert Gets Vetted http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/20081119_stephen_colbert_gets_vetted/

funny.

[macbabe]

dark secret, a thirst for power... lol

[SaviourMachine]

I loved the "c o k e d out possums" line.

[BabsfromKansas]

WSJ columnist blames financial crisis on the W ar on Christmas.

Daniel Henninger argues that the “unprecedented economic ruin” that many Americans are facing is because “a nation whose people can’t say ‘Merry Christmas’ is a nation capable of ruining its own economy... the steady secularizing and insistent effort at dereligioning America led to subprime personal behavior by borrowers and bankers.”

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122714101083742715.html

[GrouchoMarxist]

ROFL! You just can't make this stuff up.

[MichiganJFrog]

Jeepers!

The right wing has completely lost it now.

Is it bad to find it utterly hysterical?

[lornejl]

They are still trying to solidify the base, good luck with that bunch.

[MichiganJFrog]

They are as thick as any group has ever been. Not quite solid, but VERY, VERY thick.

[SaviourMachine]

Oh Lord wontcha buy me a Mercedes Benz.

My friends all have Porsches.

I must make amends.

[Rumplestiltskin]

Port Aurther, Texas. The Winter brothers were from right around there in Beaumont, Texas. Wow. ZZ Top were from around there,too. Hell of a music area.

[parrotkisser]

Christmas....that holiday where we buy lots of gifts that were made in godless countries....HAA!

[mdmpo]

I am in shock. I mean it, shock.

She had turkey kil.ling as her backdrop. She was questioned on it and said "no worries."

I am speechless.

[GerryS]

how do you get the tofu to stay in the shape of a turkey?

[CBS]

What's a turkey when you k.ill moose?

[truthforme]

appetizer

[ralph10]

Lots of posters say how can you keep picking on her? When she does such loony things, you can't help but talk about her.

[pissmist]

Fannie and Freddie should suspend forclouser for six month to one year. Just for Holiday season
is not enough.

[JettaBostonian]

Have you considered that they said "for the holiday season" to give the new administration and the new Congress time to take office?

They could hardly say, "We're putting off foreclosures until Bush and the obstructionists leave Washington."