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Getting mortgage relief during the coronavirus pandemic

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Published  March 25, 2020 11:13am EDT
I-Team
FOX 5 Atlanta

ATLANTA - After fearing a COVID-19 diagnosis, the next greatest issue facing Americans is job loss. We are expecting new unemployment numbers to be released in the coming weeks, and the prognosis is not good. 

Reducing mortgage payments during the coronavirus outbreak

how do you pay your mortgage in times like these? Well there is relief coming.

The news trickling out of the Federal Reserve is to expect unemployment numbers to shoot up to as much as 30 percent. That's hard to wrap your head around, isn't it?

Businesses are of nearly every kind are destaffing offices, reimagining how to operate or shutting down altogether in an attempt to stop the spread of the coronavirus. But 30 percent unemployement? Wow. FOX 5's Dana Fowle went to Goizueta Business School for a second opinion.

Learn more about the coronavirus outbreak in Georgia

"I think the general message is that the economy is going to suffer. We are definitely in a recession. We are in bad shape. I fully anticipate double-digit unemployment very quickly," Tom Smith, a finance professor and economist at Emory University. 

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So how do you pay your mortgage in times like these? Well there is relief coming, according to the folks at Fannie Mac and Fannie Mae. They oversee more than half of US mortgages.

Here are options to have your mortgage payments reduced or suspended for up to 12 months.

  1. Call your lender if you are financially distressed.
  2. A mountain of paperwork is not needed, not yet.
  3. Don't skip a mortgage payment without calling first.

It’s not debt forgiveness. It's a delay in payments. It may be a three-month reprieve or perhaps tacked onto the end of your 30-year loan. It will vary depending on your lender.

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