The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development on Tuesday extended COVID-19 foreclosure and forbearance moratoriums for FHA and USDA loans to June 30, 2021. It also extended the deadline for the first legal action and the reasonable diligence time frame to 180 days.
This announcement follows FHFA action last week to extend moratoriums for loans backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
The measures announced by HUD today include:
- Extending the timeframe for homeowners to request the start of a COVID-19 forbearance from their mortgage servicer through June 30, 2021.
- Expanding the COVID-19 forbearance to allow up to two forbearance extensions of up to three months each for homeowners who requested a COVID-19 forbearance on or before June 30, 2020. These extensions are designed to provide relief to homeowners who will be nearing the end of their maximum 12-month forbearance period and have not yet stabilized their financial situation.
- Expanding the use of FHA’s streamlined COVID-19 loss mitigation home retention and home disposition options to all homeowners who are behind on their mortgage payments by at least 90 days. This expansion will require mortgage servicers to assess more homeowners for a streamlined waterfall of loss mitigation home retention options, starting with FHA’s COVID-19 Standalone Partial Claim.