WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Citigroup Inc.
have announced that they will suspend evictions during the holidays.
Freddie Mac
/quotes/comstock/13*!fre/quotes/nls/fre
(FRE 1.30,
-0.01,
-0.76%)
and Fannie Mae
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(FNM 1.06,
+0.01,
+0.95%)
said they have ordered mortgage servicers and foreclosure attorneys to
suspend evictions for occupied single-family homes owned by the
government-controlled companies between Dec. 19 and Jan. 3, 2010.
Foreclosure processes will continue, however.
Tenants living in foreclosed properties backed by Fannie Mae and
Freddie Mac mortgages will also not be subject to evictions during the
holiday time frame, according to Fannie Mae.
Also Thursday, Citigroup said it will suspend foreclosures and
evictions for 30 days, until Jan. 17, for roughly 4,000 borrowers.
The lender said the suspension, which applies only to borrowers who have loans with Citigroup
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(C 3.28,
-0.01,
-0.30%)
, will start Friday.
"We hope that with this suspension we can make the holidays a little
less stressful for our customers who are going through a very difficult
time," CitiMortgage President Sanjiv Das said in a statement. "And we
will continue to look for meaningful ways to assist our customers
experiencing hardship."
Citigroup expects the national suspension will affect about 2,000
borrowers scheduled for foreclosure sales as well as another 2,000 that
were to receive foreclosure notifications in the next 30 days.
According to a Treasury Department report, Citigroup has started
103,478 three-month temporary modifications under an Obama
administration program, yet it has only made 271 of those permanent as
of the end of November. Read about Obama administration program.
Ronald D. Orol is a MarketWatch reporter, based in Washington.
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