Relief for homeowners in California now available as state foreclosures trigger

A financial assistance program that helps thousands of eligible homeowners in California is announced.

Mortgage relief officials confirmed the assistance program this week, as foreclosures spike and proceed to heavily impact communities throughout the state of California.

According to a July filings report by ATTOM Data Solutions, the numbers show that California had a 116% increase in home foreclosures processes compared to the first half of last year.

The following numbers display important takeaways from the forecloses report.

Actual foreclosure starts – considered a better barometer of homeowners struggling with mortgage payments – increased to almost 117,400 homes for the first six months of the year, a 219% jump for the same period in 2021
California had 12,800 foreclosure starts for the first six months of the year – or almost 10% of the total nationwide.
California had 16,340 homes in some form of the foreclosure process during the first six months of the year, a 116% increase compared to first-half 2021.
An estimated 250,000 in California have adjustable-rate mortgages. About half are affected by the recent Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes – up 75 basis points in July.

Also according to Redfin, five of the 10 housing markets in the U.S. that have have frozen during this summer are located in Northern California, including San Jose, Oakland, San Francisco, Sacramento and Stockton.

As for American's Finest City, San Diego is also ranked among the top 10 on the list, which raises general concerns over the possibility of a looming precision.

Furthermore, the data shows that vulnerable communities of color are impacted the most by these numbers.

According to a study from the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, African-American and Latino households have foreclosure rates three-times higher than Caucasian households.

African American and Latino homeowners [across California] had foreclosure rates 1.9 and 2.3 times higher than whites, respectively, from September 2006 through October 2009.
The fallout can last for years… Between 2007 and 2012, LA County Latinos had the highest rate (13%), followed by African Americans (12%). Both racial/ethnic groups had foreclosure rates three times higher than whites.

Tiena Johnson Hall, Executive Director of the California Housing Finance Agency, says the financial assistance plan will be a huge sight of relief for families affected by these numbers.

"The pandemic has forced too many California families into housing insecurity, through no fault of their own. In the six months since it launched, this program has saved homes that were just days from being auctioned, homeowners that owed up to $80,000 in mortgage payments and those who had defaulted on their property taxes. Thanks to these grants, that don’t ever have to be paid back, these families can now breathe a sigh of relief," said Tiena Johnson Hall in a statement.

The California Mortgage Relief Program will be distributing up to $1 billion to assist with missed home payments covered by federal funding.

The distributed funding will be laid out as the following: