Christmas Present From Fannie Mae And Freddie Mac: No Foreclosures For Now

Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and other mortgage providers have a Christmas present for struggling homeowners: They won't get thrown out of their houses homes during the holiday season.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will not foreclose on any homeowners between December 19 and January 2, according to statements on their web sites. Private mortgage providers, such as JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America, also said they plan to suspend their evictions during the holidays, according to CNNMoney.

"The holidays are meant for families to spend time together," Terry Edwards, executive vice president at Fannie Mae, said in a statement.

That holiday spirit will only go so far. During the holidays, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac acknowledged that they will continue the administrative and legal proceedings leading to foreclosure in their statements.

Though lenders are touting their holiday hiatus, many banks such as Bank of America have already halted many of their foreclosures before: late last year after it came to light that they had been foreclosing on homes with fraudulent paperwork.

But struggling homeowners may not have much to look forward to in the new year, since it appears that the number of the foreclosures is only likely to rise. The inventory of homes in foreclosure has reached an all-time high of 4.29 percent of all active mortgages, according to Lender Processing Services.

The number of foreclosures spiked seven percent in October, though they were still 31 percent lower than the number of foreclosures during the same period in 2010, according to a report by RealtyTrac cited by CNN.

About 22 percent of all homeowners with mortgages remain underwater, or owe more on their mortgage than their house is worth, according to CoreLogic.

The present that would help these numerous homeowners avoid eventual foreclosure -- a writedown on the principal of their mortgage -- still seems unlikely, as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac refuse to consider principal reductions, and banks similarly have been reluctant to reduce the principals of mortgages owned by investors in mortgage-backed securities.

Here are some of the craziest foreclosure stories of the year:

Comments

[tikitd]

01:37 PM on 12/08/2011

Thanks Fannie and Freddie and thank you tax payers! Where is the outrage against Fannie and Freddie? They have been handed over $170 billion in bail out money and keep getting more and they are paying their executives bonuses? For what, losing money? 12 executives paid over $32 million in salary and bonuses in the last two years and they just asked for another $13 billion! Where is the media coverage? Where are the occupiers?

[Humanitari Leandro]

07:43 AM on 12/07/2011

Bravo OWS, your pressure works! at least this

[usjustice4all]

01:24 AM on 12/06/2011

If that's true, Why did Wells Fargo send a realtor to my house, while I was gone, told my daughter they sold the house and would give cash for keys? Really? To a 14yr old? No parents? They could careless, it's probably only motivated by the fact they want to cut back on labor on their end and suck it for themselves on a nice holiday. Chinese torture if you ask me.

[ReaItors Are Liars]

08:34 AM on 12/05/2011

Just walk away from the depreciating house and inflated mortgage payments.

Why stay and overpay?

[libertymen]

07:09 AM on 12/05/2011

Really,if you are facing foreclosure on JAN 2,would you have a great Xmas?
probably you will spend it packing.
Or pouring cement into the traps under your plumbing fixtures.
Itsall PR
.Like BOA is not some corrupt parasitic bank outfit.
give me a credit union everytime.

[ILoveGreatDanes]

06:20 AM on 12/05/2011

Yay! Now I only have to worry about getting evicted 352 days out of the year!

[thebigbike]

12:30 AM on 12/05/2011

I think you should give the predators - oops I mean lenders credit for the helpfulness and forethought NO evictions at Christmas, but they are going to allow the foreclosees to have a completely new Start after New Years Day, and an extra day besides this year ! But come January 3, get your sorry poor a$$es out of OUR house.

[nomoredead]

11:41 PM on 12/04/2011

A Banker Speaks, With Regret (November 30, 2011)
"Theckston says that borrowers made harebrained decisions and exaggerated their resources but that bankers were far more culpable - and that all this was driven by pressure from the top. 'You’ve got somebody making $20,000 buying a $500,000 home, thinking that she’d flip it,' he said. 'That was crazy, but the banks put programs together to make those kinds of loans.' 'The bigwigs of the corporations knew this, but they figured we’re going to make billions out of it, so who cares? The government is going to bail us out. And the problem loans will be out of here, maybe even overseas.' One memory particularly troubles Theckston. He says that some account executives earned a commission seven times higher from subprime loans, rather than prime mortgages. So they looked for less savvy borrowers - those with less education, without previous mortgage experience, or without fluent English - and nudged them toward subprime loans. These less savvy borrowers were disproportionately blacks and Latinos, he said, and they ended up paying a higher rate so that they were more likely to lose their homes. Senior executives seemed aware of this racial mismatch, he recalled, and frantically tried to cover it up."
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/01/opinion/kristof-a-banker-speaks-with-regret.html

[giwel7]

10:12 PM on 12/04/2011

how nice of them. no illegal foreclosures over the hollidays

[crws]

08:51 PM on 12/04/2011

I Promise I'll Pull Out

[Tom95134]

05:21 PM on 12/04/2011

It is most interesting to note how many of these involved Bank of America.

[ReaItors Are Liars]

05:08 PM on 12/04/2011

Are any of these people delinquent or in default?

[spkninglsh]

02:27 PM on 12/04/2011

George Bailey: Merry Christmas, Mr. Potter!

Mr. Potter: And Happy New Year to you, in jail! Why don't you go on home? They're waiting for you!

[Seriously217]

01:50 AM on 12/04/2011

So is this supposed to give us all that "warm, fuzzy feeling" ... give me a break. Homeowners AND the Federal Government's attorney general should be bringing legal action against these banks instead of the banks bringing legal action against homeowners! Let us not forget ... Banks such as Bank of America have already halted many of their foreclosures before: late last year after it came to light that they had been foreclosing on homes with fraudulent paperwork..in other words, loans they didn't even legally OWN anymore.

[l78lancer]

11:44 PM on 12/03/2011

Just in time for the after Christmas bills.

Tis the season.