Mortgage Relief Update – COVID-19 | Coronavirus

Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac to let borrowers facing hardship defer 2 months of mortgage payments

Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae announced programs to offer immediate mortgage relief up to 2 months of payment to the end of their mortgage without needing to significantly modify the loan.

“This innovative relief solution addresses a unique hardship situation – homeowners who have resolved a short-term hardship,” Freddie Mac said in its announcement. “It aims to serve those homeowners with a more affordable workout that’s between a repayment plan and a modification. This is a broad offering that is aligned with Fannie Mae at the direction of the Federal Housing Finance Agency to assist more struggling homeowners.”

Details from Freddie Mac on how the program will work:

“At Freddie Mac, we recognize that some Borrowers experience temporary financial hardships resulting in an early stage Delinquency that cannot be solved by a reinstatement or repayment plan, but also do not require the more extensive modification of terms that a Freddie Mac Flex Modification would provide. The Payment Deferral is designed to provide relief to eligible Borrowers who have the financial capacity to resume making their monthly payments, but who are unable to afford the additional monthly contributions required by a repayment plan. An eligible Borrower will be brought current by deferring delinquent principal and interest (P&I), creating a non-interest bearing forborne balance that will become due at the earlier of the Mortgage maturity date, payoff date, or upon transfer or sale of the Mortgaged Premises. The remaining Mortgage term, interest rate schedule (i.e., whether a fixed-rate Mortgage, an ARM or Step-Rate Mortgage), payment schedule and maturity date of the Mortgage will all remain unchanged.

Here is a link to a video provided by Freddie Mac to explain the program details. The links below will allow you to look up your loan if you know your loan is backed up by Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae. If your loan is not a Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae, many banks and service providers are providing their own version of a payment deferment plan,  reach out to them early on and do no wait.

• Freddie Mac Loan Look Up: https://ww3.freddiemac.com/loanlookup/ 
• Freddie Mac Payment Deferral Program Details: http://www.freddiemac.com/about/covid-19.html
• Fannie Mae Loan Look Up: https://www.knowyouroptions.com/loanlookup 
• Fannie Mae Payment Deferral Program Details: https://www.knowyouroptions.com/covid19assistance