Freddie Mac reported that the Single-Family serious delinquency rate in June was 2.48%, up from 0.81% in May. This rate is the highest serious delinquency rate since October 2013. These are mortgage loans that are “three monthly payments or more past due or in foreclosure.”
Freddie’s serious delinquency rate peaked in February 2010 at 4.20%.
With COVID-19, this rate will increase significantly again in July.
In addition, we are facing an avalanche of evictions. Usually, every year in the United States brings about 3.7 million evictions, according to Matthew Desmond, principal investigator of Princeton University’s “Eviction Lab” project, which tracks evictions throughout the country and produces the first nationwide eviction database. Because of coronavirus and the massive loss of jobs, today, 28 million are on the edge of being homeless.
The President’s New Order to Extend Evictions and How That Could Affect Landlords
The CARES Act expired on July 24th. The legislation gave renters a 120 day grace period from “fees, penalties, or charges concerning nonpayment of rent” and barred landlords from filing eviction notices of any kind during that period.
The $600 federal weekly unemployment benefit from the CARES Act expired in July. With no deal in place between Republicans and Democrats for another stimulus package, President Donald Trump signed an executive memorandum Saturday to restart the additional extra weekly funds but at $400 instead of $600.
Along with the return of the enhanced unemployment benefit, Trump also signed three other executive actions, for a payroll tax holiday, federal student loan assistance, and eviction protection. Like the $400 unemployment benefits, there are questions on the legality of these orders.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said, “… not only does the president’s announcement not actually extend the eviction moratorium. It provides no assistance to help pay the rent, which will only leave desperate families to watch their debt pile higher.”
An Avalanche of Evictions
Stacey Johnson-Cosby, president of KC Regional Housing Alliance, said the pandemic is also having an impact on property owners as well.
“The ones that weren’t able to get the rent from their tenants had to go to their mortgage companies and perhaps ask for a forbearance. But the thing that doesn’t stop is that the payment for the repairs, the insurance, hiring someone to make the repairs, property taxes. All of the costs to maintain the property always go on,” Johnson-Cosby explained.
The Housing Disaster
Some say the solution to the housing problem brought on by the Covid-19 problem is more time for renters to get back to paying rent. Others suggest communication between the landlord and the tenant. Still, others suggest we all, as taxpayers, pay the rent of those out of work.
I suspect politics is deeply involved. It wouldn’t be good for Trump to see renters kicked out of their homes before the election, and the other side could show furniture sitting on lawns before the election as another failure of the Trump administration.
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