One day before the federal eviction ban expires, the Biden government is using the levers it has through federal agencies to keep evictions on hold until September.

That Federal Housing Finance Agency and the Federal Housing Administration today both announced they would extend their eviction bans on foreclosed property borrowers. Other federal authorities should follow suit.

"The pandemic continues to have an overwhelming impact on the ability of Americans to make their monthly rent or mortgage payments. Today's extension of the eviction moratorium protects particularly vulnerable Americans who otherwise run the risk of losing a place to stay, "said Sandra Thompson, deputy director of the FHFA.

The Biden administration can manage the Centers for Disease Control Eviction ban without "clear and specific approval from Congress (on new laws)," according to a unilateral opinion by Supreme Court Judge Brett Kavanaugh in late June.

"President Biden would have strongly supported a decision by the CDC to extend this eviction moratorium to protect tenants in this moment of heightened vulnerability," said White House press secretary Jen Psaki. "Unfortunately, the Supreme Court has made it clear that this is no longer an option."

The CDC ban also faced numerous legal challenges from property owners.

With the renewal of the CDC rule off the table yesterday, President Joe Biden called the US Departments of Housing and Urban Development, Agriculture, and Veterans affairs to extend any of their eviction bans. He also called on Congress to pass a law extending an eviction moratorium.

On the same day, more than a dozen real estate associations sent letters to the Senate, Treasury Department and the HUD asking them to refuse "further extensions" of a moratorium.

Californian Congresswoman Maxine Waters presented a bill on Thursday evening that would extend the eviction moratorium until the end of the year. The efforts would meet stiff resistance in the Senate. The New York Times reported that a Senate vote to extend the eviction moratorium is likely to fail.

However, the enforcement bans of the federal authorities expire as planned on July 31. The White House last week announced a range of options for borrowers on government-secured mortgages to reduce their monthly payments.

Most of the country's 44 million rental households are owned by private companies, some of which have complex financing from commercial banks and insurance companies. Compared to the single-family home market, the federal government has only limited possibilities to control the rental market in the state.

Both the FHA and FHFA eviction ban extensions apply to their holdings of foreclosed or real estate (REO) properties.

According to an analysis of FHA's FHA Neighborhood Watch data, the FHA has 7.6 million outstanding loans, and in June 14.2% were overdue and 10.0% heavily overdue AEI housing center. The FHFA renewal upon evictions would have an impact on the 9,700 REO properties in the GSE portfolio.

Fannie Mae held $ 1.1 billion in REO real estate while Freddie Mac held $ 198 million in REO single-family homes at the end of 2020.

The majority of single-family REO properties in Fannie Mae's portfolio have no option for the time being. Nearly 60% of those properties on Fannie Mae's books were rated "unmarketable" at the end of December 2020, compared to 45% at the end of 2019.

According to Fannie Mae's latest annual report, the eviction moratorium on foreclosures on single-family homes resulted in an increase of 15 percentage points. Freddie Mac said in his 2020 annual report that the percentage of its REO properties has also "dropped significantly" due to the foreclosure and eviction bans.

source https://seapointrealtors.com/2021/07/30/fha-fhfa-re-up-eviction-bans-at-bidens-urging/


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