Fannie Mac and Freddie Mac, the federal housing departments responsible for the majority of loan funding in this country, announced that on Nov. 1st the guidelines for short sales would change. The changes, outlined here in my blog , were aimed at making short sales easier to complete and to allow more sellers to qualify to participate in them.
Of all of the changes supposedly put into action on Nov 1st, the one that will have the biggest impact will be the removal of the requirement to be delinquent on your mortgage. Did it ever make sense to require someone to miss a payment on a home they were already upside down on and facing a financial hardship which would strip them of their ability to pay? I think it makes sense to remove this requirement. Why would the bank, who is going to lose in the short sale process, want to tell the seller to skip 60 days worth of payments? It made no sense.
What are your thoughts? Do these changes seem to be a positive for the real estate industry or do you think it will further drive prices down?
