The US, though recovering from the economic crisis, still has higher unemployment than the past four decades, and this stress on the economy and real estate industry has prompted federal regulators to try to step in. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the protector of consumer deposits for the last few decades, has been making efforts to minimize the ill effects of homeowners with mortgages who are losing their jobs, in a bid to prevent another big wave of foreclosures and short sales.

The regulatory body ahs suggested that banks and other lenders grant struggling homeowners (who can prove that they are struggling due to recent job loss or involuntary pay cut) a forbearance. This means that borrowers get a small break from making their mortgage payments, lasting up to six months. This also gives homeowners the opportunity to negotiate with the bank for a loan modification or refinancing deal that might save their home from the decimation of a real estate short sale or a foreclosure.

The chairwoman of the FDIC has released statements explaining that these strategies will, in addition to lessening losses experienced by lenders and the FDIC, be the right thing to do.

The agency has released plans to encourage lenders to cut down homeowner’s home payments to more affordable levels, but only for those borrowers who can prove that they are only defaulting due to recent job loss. Then new payments will take into account living expenses.

The plan only applies to about fifty different lending institutions, because these are the banks that had to tap into the insurance funds of the FDIC during the financial crisis. The plans unfortunately do not influence Wells Fargo, Citigroup, Bank of America, or JPMorgan Chase. Although, it’s important to note that these banks do have similar plans.

For example, Citigroup announced back in March that it would be instuting a Homeowner Unemployment Assist program, which often lowered payments for unemployed borrowers for about three months. Wells Fargo has had a similar program in place for many years, allowing defaulting borrowers who are unemployed ask for a forbearance, though the details of the forbearance vary from mortgage to mortgagee. JPMORgan Chase, on the other hand, does not have an official program, though they admit that they will offer a loan forbearance to homeowners who have recently been laid off. Bank of America routinely offers a forbearance of six months to homeowners who are unemployed.

It’s important to keep in mind that, under any program, if you have pretty good prospects for re-employment in the near future, banks will look on you more kindly and be more likely to offer you time instead of trying to cut their losses right away.

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