The FHFA and FHA Announce Extension of the COVID-19 Eviction Moratorium on Real Estate Owned Properties Through September 30, 2021

On Thursday (7-30-21), and one day prior to their scheduled expiration, The Federal Housing Finance Agency and the Federal Housing Administration announced that they would both be extending their eviction bans on borrowers of foreclosed properties until September 30, 2021. Other federal agencies are expected to follow suit. Both the FHA and FHFA eviction ban extensions apply to their stock of foreclosed or real-estate owned (REO) properties. FHA has 7.6 million outstanding loans, and in June, 14.2% were delinquent and 10.0% were seriously delinquent, according to an analysis of FHA Neighborhood Watch data by AEI Housing Center. The FHFA renewal on evictions would impact the 9,700 REO properties in the GSEs portfolio. Fannie Mae held $1.1 billion in REO properties, while Freddie Mac held $198 million in REO single-family properties at the end of 2020. The majority of the single-family REO properties in Fannie Mae’s portfolio have no possibility of disposition, for now. Nearly 60% of those properties on Fannie Mae’s books were categorized as “unable to market” at the end of December, 2020, compared to 45% at the end of 2019.