Recently we heard some good news for homeownership. The Mortgage Bankers Association reported on Monday that nationwide mortgage forbearance rates in June were the lowest in months: 5.64% for federally-backed mortgages, and 7.8% overall. This means that a greater share of Americans are again able to afford their homes after the initial COVID outbreak.
Local foreclosure data appear to echo this point. According to RealtyTrac, the number of foreclosures in San Francisco in June (20), more than halved compared to the monthly averages between January and March:
These are encouraging signs. However, we cannot assume we are past the worst of the pandemic’s blows to housing affordability.
Typically notices of default are issued after 90 days of missed payments. That means that if someone lost a job and started missing mortgage payments in April, their foreclosure process would only begin now.
And when you consider the scale of Bay Area layoffs due to COVID, we should expect more people in our city will experience this in the coming months.
They are as follows:
If you are in this situation, we would be happy to talk through these options in more detail.
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