Real Estate Insights

Last week, on January 10, 2011, the State of California launched the “Keep Your Home California” campaign with the rollout of the Unemployment Mortgage Assistance Program (UMA). The UMA program is expected to assist as many as 60,000 eligible homeowners by providing a mortgage payment subsidy of up to $3,000 for a maximum of six months.

Eligible unemployed homeowners facing imminent foreclosure should call for the chance to apply for the state funded mortgage assistance program. Phone lines are now open 888-954-KEEP (5337) and the agency has already received over 1200 calls over the first two days.

Supported by $2 billion in recent federal funding by the US Treasury, Keep Your Home California is a compilation of four unique programs that will become available over the next few months to eligible California families who are struggling to pay their mortgages.

The campaign is designed to address different aspects of the current housing crisis by offering the following programs:

1. Unemployment Mortgage Assistance Program (UMA) – up to $3,000 a month in mortgage payments for up to six months for mortgagors actively collecting unemployment benefits.
2. Mortgage Reinstatement Assistance Program (MRAP) – up to $15,000 for reinstatement of arrearages.
3. Principal Reduction Program (PRP) – up to $50,000 contribution toward principal balance reduction.
4. Transition Assistance Program (TAP) – up to $5,000 in transition assistance for short sales and deeds-in-lieu of foreclosure.

The programs are designed to assist those homeowners who have experienced a change in household circumstance such as death, illness or disability, or are subject to a recent or upcoming increase in their monthly mortgage payment and are at risk of default because of this economic hardship when coupled with a severe decline in their home's value.

But these programs are only available to homeowners whose mortgage servicing company agrees to the terms and conditions governing the use of these funds. So far participating lenders, loan servicers and agencies include Wells Fargo, Chase, Bank of America, GMAC, CalHFA, and the Department of Veterans Affairs, as well as the government-sponsored Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

If your servicer is not currently participating in Keep Your Home California, you may want to call them and encourage them to do so. For more information and the most recent list of services participating please visit: http://www.keepyourhomecalifornia.org/