Mortgage financing giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac announced that homeowners in forbearance can request payment deferrals and tack any missed payments on to the end of their loan term, without penalty or added interest.

Under forbearance, homeowners are still required to repay any missed payments. But the government-sponsored enterprises made clear in an announcement Wednesday that borrowers do not have to repay them all at once.

Freddie Mac stated that borrowers taking one of its mortgage deferral solutions will be able to eventually resume their monthly mortgage payment to its pre–COVID-19 amount by adding up to 12 months of missed payments—including escrow advances—to the end of the mortgage term. Borrowers will not accrue any extra interest or late fees. Its solution is effective July 1, the date when mortgage servicers will begin to evaluate homeowners with resolved COVID-19–related hardships for eligibility.

“Our main focus continues to be finding new and innovative ways to help borrowers and their families during this pandemic,” says Donna Corley, executive vice president and head of Freddie Mac’s single-family business. “Our payment deferral solution adds another tool to our toolbox to help homeowners pick up where they left off once they’ve recovered from a short-term financial hardship.”

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are allowing homeowners affected financially by the COVID-19 pandemic to pause their mortgage payments for up to a full year through forbearance. By the start of May, nearly 4 million homeowners had taken advantage of the government’s or a bank's mortgage forbearance program, according to data from Black Knight, a mortgage analytics firm.

Loan servicers are to reach out about 30 days before a borrower’s initial forbearance plan is to end to determine what type of repayment plan is needed.

Fannie Mae says that homeowners will have several options to pay back missed payments, including rolling the payments to the end of their mortgage as well as repaying in full—if they wish to—or setting up a repayment plan to gradually catch up.

Fannie and Freddie also said loan modifications could be possible depending on the borrower’s situation.

The National Association of REALTORS® applauded the Federal Housing Finance Agency's move to deliver greater certainty to homeowners who need to take forbearance. This move offers "solutions and some much-needed certainty to the millions of U.S. families facing unemployment and unsure how they will cover next month’s bills," says Vince Malta, NAR's president. "This flexibility will be invaluable for American consumers as we begin to emerge from this crisis and restart our economy."

To determine whether a loan is owned by one of the GSEs, visit Fannie’s lookup tool or Freddie Mac’s lookup tool.

Source: Realtor.com

Santa Fe, April 6, 2020—In order to reduce the potential spread of COVID-19 in places where people shop the Mayor announced certain safety requirements and suggestions for businesses. Customers are also asked to follow additional safety recommendations while they shop for food and essential household goods, including wearing a mask (a cotton mask or a scarf), observing 6 feet social distancing and limiting trips to the store to once a week.

Below is a summary of the latest requirements and recommendations; for more details and a copy of the order please visit santafenm.gov.

Stores shall:

·       Be allowed to provide single-use plastic bags without charge or penalty

·       No longer allow re-usable bags brought in by customers

·       Disinfect handles of all shopping carts and baskets in between uses or provide customers access to disinfecting options

·       Provide disinfecting wipes, as available, at cash registers and other high-touch points in the store

·       Provide, as available, alcohol-based sanitizers in the store for customer use

·       Sanitize frequent touch-points in the store throughout the day

·       Discontinue all self-service salad bars, self-service food stations, including bulk food stations, and product tasting or sampling stands

·       Follow the Center for Disease Control’s cleaning guidelines

·       Implement procedures to ensure that both customers and employees remain at least six (6) feet apart, including “social distancing lines” that begin six (6) feet from checkout counters; and monitor social distancing and assist customers in practicing social distancing in the store

·       “Meter” the number of customers in the store at any one time, limiting the number to no more than thirty percent (30%) of the facility’s listed fire capacity

·       Mark off six (6) foot distances between waiting spaces where lines form, both inside and outside the store

·       Provide exclusive hours for self-identified high-risk populations and limit entrances during those special shopping hours to twenty-five percent (25%) of maximum occupancy levels

·       Permit employees to wear masks and gloves if employees wish to do so

The City is also advising customers to take the following actions:

·       Limit the persons from a household who visit supermarkets and grocery stores to as few as possible (the recommendation is a single person, if possible)

·       Limit the number of trips to grocery stores and supermarkets to as few as possible, and no more than one per week, considering the size of households

·       Not hoard items, by purchasing only what is needed for a period of up to two weeks at a time, or as further limited by the State’s Orders

·       If the grocery store or supermarket has not already done so, wipe down shopping carts upon arrival and departure, using disinfecting wipes, as available

·       Wash hands before leaving home and after returning from shopping

·       Observe proper social distancing of at least six (6) feet of space between shoppers while shopping inside the grocery stores and supermarkets

·       Wear masks and gloves, if feasible, while in grocery stores and supermarkets

·       Cooperate with grocery stores’ and supermarkets’ social distancing and cleanliness standards to promote social distancing and reduce the spread of the COVID-19 virus

“I want to thank the employees of the City’s grocery stores and supermarkets for their service during the COVID-19 Emergency and recognize them for their important role keeping open the lines of essential supplies to our residents.” Said Mayor Webber. 

For the purposes of this Order, “grocery stores and supermarkets” means retail businesses that primarily sell food products to the public and includes farmers’ markets.