Homeowners Keep Your Home
If your answer to any one of these questions is YES, please continue reading. This new program could very well make the difference for you in keeping your home. The program is called "Keep Your Home" and it will become available to struggling homeowners on November 1, 2010.
1. Have you lost your job and are in imminent danger of foreclosure?
2. Have you already missed one or more payments?
3. Do you have severe negative equity?
4. Because of your financial circumstances, have you decided you cannot keep your home and are willing to cooperate with your lender's short-sale or deed-in-lieu of foreclosure program?
The California Housing Finance Agency has obtained approval to use nearly $700 million in federal funding to help California Homeowners.
While they're not yet taking applications, it's important to know the details of this program which focuses specifically in assististing low and moderate income families stay in their homes, when possible.
There are four components to this new program:
- Homeowners who have lost their job and are in imminent danger of foreclosure due to short-term financial problems. These folks can obtain a payment subsidy of up to $1,500 or 50% of tehir monthly mortgage payments, whichever is less, for as long as six months.
- Homeowners who have missed one or more payments can receive up to $15,000 or 50% of the past due amount, whichever is less, to reinstate the mortgage and prevent a foreclosure. The lender, loan servicer, mortgage insurere, and/or borrower must matchthe catch-up money on a dollar-for-dollar basis.
- Homeowners who have severe negative equity can receive up to $50,000 to reduce the principal balance on their mortgage to a market level to prevent an avoidable foreclosure and promote sustainable homeownership. The money is granted on a matching basis, which means the lender must agree to reduce the principal balance by the same amount.
- Homeowners who can't afford to keep their home and are willing to cooperate with a participating lender's short sale or deed-in-lieu of foreclosure program can receive a one-time grant of up to $5,000, paid through the loan servicer, to transition to a more affordable residence.
To Be Eligible:
You must occupy the home as a primary residence
Meet income restrictions based on county and household size
Sign a hardship affidavit
Have enough income to make modified payments
Be delinquent or in danger of imminent default
Keep in mind that the property must be in California and cannot be abandoned, vacant, condemned, or in serious disrepair.
Since this program does not officially roll out until November 1, 2010, we highly recommend you get on CalHFA's "alert" mailing list to recieve regular updates
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