Mortgage Forbearance for Unemployed Homeowners

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac recently extended their forbearance programs to give short-term aid to unemployed homeowners. In these programs, lenders typically allow a borrower to skip or reduce payments for a period of time. But they often come with terms and conditions, and delaying payments increases the unpaid balance.

The number of homeowners completing forbearance and repayment plans remains high. At Fannie Mae, 26,801 homeowners completed plans in the first nine months of 2011. This was 13% more than the same period in 2010. In all of 2008, 7,892 homeowners completed these plans.

Information on other federal government mortgage assistance programs is available here.

The Connecticut Department of Banking also has information on various programs available to homeowners.