Mortgage Giants Halt Foreclosures for the Holidays

Property owners facing foreclosure just received an early gift—they won’t be evicted from their home over the holidays.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac recently announced that they will halt all bank repossessions beginning December 17th and will not continue with evictions until January 2nd of 2013.

Fannie Mea is quoted as saying, “the holidays are a chance to be with loved ones and we want to relieve some stress at this time of year”.

Alternate pre or post foreclosure activities (notice of defaults, scheduling trustee sales, etc) will not be halted, according to a Freddie Mac spokesman.  All admin and legal functions will continue as scheduled, too.

Another mortgage services, Bank of America, will also halt evictions for loans it currently owns and those it services during the holiday season.  JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Citibank have suspended foreclosure sale dates in past years yet have not given any indication that they will be halting the sale of foreclosures this year.

This reprieve is different from the announced moratoriums on foreclosure eviction for super storm Sandy victims which continues through February.

Do you think that the bank is doing the right thing when halting foreclosure through the holidays?  All feedback is welcome . . .