Real Estate Marketing & Beyond
Keep Your Home California will receive an additional $383.3 million in funding from the federal government, allowing the mortgage-assistance program to help prevent foreclosure for more homeowners struggling with financial hardships.The U.S. Department of the Treasury announced the additional funding Wednesday, the second phase of additional funding approved for the Hardest Hit Fund program during the past two months. The combined $383.3 million will allow the state-managed program to help at least 12,000 more homeowners. Qualifying homeowners can receive up to $100,000 in mortgage payment assistance from Keep Your Home California.
“US Treasury’s announcement of additional funding for Keep Your Home California further validates the ongoing challenges many Californians are experiencing with homeownership,” said state Treasurer John Chiang. “We are excited to have the opportunity to help many more California homeowners who are struggling with their mortgages due to unaffordable payments, unemployment, negative equity and other financial hardships.”When Keep Your Home California launched in 2011, nearly $2 billion was available to California homeowners to help prevent foreclosures. The additional funding brings the grand total to $2.36 billion in mortgage payment assistance available to low to moderate income California homeowners. So far, Keep Your Home California has assisted more than 62,200 homeowners and issued about $1.34 billion since the program began.
“Today’s announcement continues Treasury’s commitment to provide relief to struggling homeowners and help stabilize neighborhoods in hard hit areas,” said Mark McArdle, Treasury Deputy Assistant Secretary for Financial Stability. “While the housing market continues to recover we know some homeowners and areas are still experiencing the damaging effects of the housing crisis. With this additional funding, states will be equipped to continue their great work in getting critical resources to those most in need.”
The additional $383.3 million in federal funding comes after Keep Your Home California recently reported its two best quarters since the program started in February 2011. The program issued more than $95 million in funding during the third and fourth quarters of 2015 – or a combined $190 million for the six-month period.
According to numerous reports, there are still a host of challenges facing the California housing market. For example, more than 1 million Californians were jobless in March, including many out-of-work homeowners, according to the state Employment Development Department.
At the end of 2015, about 50,000 homeowners in the state were at least 90 days behind on their mortgage payments, which often leads to foreclosure. And, California had the most negative-equity of any state at $65 billion – or 13 percent of the negative-equity mortgages nationwide – at the end of the third quarter in 2015, according to data from Zillow.
“The demand for assistance from homeowners and the figures from housing industry reports clearly demonstrate the continued need for Keep Your Home California,” said Tia Boatman Patterson, Executive Director of the California Housing Finance Agency, the state agency which oversees Keep Your Home California. “Our primary goal is to help struggling homeowners with their mortgage problems, but everyone, from neighborhoods to state government, benefits from Keep Your Home California.”
With the additional funding, Keep Your Home California will now continue to December 31, 2020, or until the money is used, whichever comes first. The previous deadline for the program was December 31, 2017. Homeowners seeking more information about Keep Your Home California should call 888-954-KEEP (5337) between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. weekdays and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays or visit www.KeepYourHomeCalifornia.org.
Representatives can take applications in virtually any language through a translation service and there is never a fee for any Keep Your Home California services. A Spanish-language version of the website is also available at www.ConservaTuCasaCalifornia.org.
