WORLD PROPERTY CHANNEL ®

(NEW YORK CITY, NY) -- Homeowners dreading those stressful foreclosure notices in the mail are getting a holiday break from Citigroup, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Citigroup is suspending foreclosure actions from Dec. 18 through Jan. 17, 2010. About  4,000 borrowers were scheduled to lose their homes during the holiday season.

Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are suspending foreclosure evictions from Dec. 19, 2009 through Jan. 3, 2010.

DSNews.com reports Citi's month-long foreclosure moratorium affects only those loans owned by the bank, about 20 percent of its $746 billion mortgage servicing and lending portfolio. The program does not apply to the other 80 percent that it services for investors. 

The bank expects the national suspension will affect about 2,000 borrowers scheduled to have foreclosure sales and another 2,000 that were to receive foreclosure notifications in the next 30 days.

Sanjiv Das

"We hope that with this suspension we can make the holidays a little less stressful for our customers who are going through a very difficult time," says Sanjiv Das, president and CEO of CitiMortgage. "And we will continue to look for meaningful ways to assist our customers experiencing hardship."

Citi says its multi-faceted Homeowner Assistance Program has helped approximately 715,000 homeowners avoid foreclosure and remain in their homes since the housing crisis began in 2007.

The bank says it makes "strenuous attempts" to establish contact with distressed homeowners, and does not initiate or complete a foreclosure sale on any borrower eligible for assistance where Citi owns the mortgage, the borrower is seeking to stay in the home as their primary residence, and is "working in good faith" with Citi to work out affordable mortgage payments

Ed Haldeman

In Freddie Mac's announcement, the company said it will suspend all evictions involving foreclosed, occupied single family and two to four unit properties that had Freddie Mac-owned mortgages.

"If the property is occupied, our attorneys will halt the eviction during this holiday moratorium," said Ed Haldeman, Freddie Mac CEO. "In these extraordinary times, we want to provide a greater measure of certainty to these families during the holidays."

Fannie Mae had no inclusions and said all owner-occupants and tenants living in foreclosed properties the company holds will not be subject to evictions during  this time frame.

Michael J. Williams

Fannie Mae said it will also support the efforts of the servicers it works with that are taking similar actions.

"We're taking this step in support of struggling families who have unfortunately found themselves facing foreclosure," said Michael J. Williams, president and CEO of Fannie Mae. "No family should have to face the prospect of being evicted during the holiday season."

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