Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have announced they will halt foreclosure evictions between Dec. 20 and Jan. 3.
Bank of America too has said it will pause its foreclosure sales and evictions from “late December thorugh New Years Day,” on loans held in its portfolio or loans held by investors who will allow such a moratorium.
Freddie Mac made its announcement Wednesday morning, with Bank of America following suit shortly after.
“If the property is occupied, our foreclosure attorneys will suspend the eviction to provide a greater measure of certainty to families during the holidays,” said Anthony Renzi, Executive Vice President of Single Family Portfolio Management at Freddie Mac.
Bank of America spokesman Rick Simon noted that the lender has already placed a voluntary hold on most foreclosure sales and evictions as reviews its foreclosure process and resubmits affidavits in those states that require judicial foreclosures, such as Florida.
CitiMortgage said yesterday it has no plans to do a foreclosure moratorium this holiday season, (bah-humbug) although it did stop foreclosures sales and foreclosure notifications last year between Dec. 18 and Jan. 17.
This has been done, either formally or informally for the past 2 years so the banks don’t get ‘bad press’. And, as in the past 2 years, it will just mean that when the 1st quarter 2011 foreclosure numbers get reported in April or May, the “experts” will report an ‘unexpected’ rise in foreclosures over the previous quarter.
