WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 23rd July, 2021) The Biden administration is cutting by a quarter the mortgage payments for homeowners hit by hardship from the coronavirus pandemic measures and moving missed payments until the end of the borrowing period to prevent foreclosures, the White House said on Friday.
The departments of Housing and Urban Development, Agriculture and Veterans Affairs are taking steps "to provide homeowners with a roughly 25 percent reduction in borrowers' monthly principal and interest payments to ensure they can afford to remain in their homes and build equity long-term", the White House said in a statement.
With more than 160 million Americans fully vaccinated against the coronavirus and more getting back to work, life is returning to normal for most people but many others still need continued assistance, the White House said.
"For homeowners who can resume their pre-pandemic monthly mortgage payment and where agencies have the authority, agencies will continue requiring mortgage servicers to offer options that allow borrowers to move missed payments to the end of the mortgage at no additional cost to the borrower."
The White House said in some cases, even larger reductions were possible, such as the new "COVID-19 Refund" option, where the Veteran Affairs Department will can purchase from the servicer a borrower's pandemic-era arrearages and, if needed, additional amounts of loan principal, to help distressed owners keep their homes.
The US economy has rebounded in 2021 at a growth rate of 6.4 percent, but the Federal Reserve has cautioned it does not expect full employment - defined by a monthly unemployment rate of 4 percent or lower - to occur anytime soon. Officials have said of the 21 million jobs lost in 2020 during the height of the lockdowns and other restrictive measures, more than 7 million jobs are yet to return. The monthly unemployment rate in June stood at 5.9 percent.
