Foreclosure Moratorium 2025

Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government, most states, some localities, and many mortgage lenders put foreclosure moratoriums (bans) into effect. But these federal and state foreclosure moratoriums have expired.

Still, in a few circumstances, depending on your loan type, you might be eligible for a pause in foreclosure proceedings. For example, homeowners whose properties are damaged or destroyed in a natural disaster, such as a wildfire, flood, or hurricane, often qualify for a foreclosure moratorium (or other mortgage relief). If you have a Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac loan and your mortgage servicer learns that you've applied to your state's Homeowner Assistance Fund program, the servicer must suspend any foreclosure activity for up to 60 days.

In addition, other kinds of mortgage help are available to help you stop a foreclosure—like getting a loan modification or participating in foreclosure mediation—even if you don't qualify for a foreclosure moratorium.

What Is a Foreclosure Moratorium?

A "foreclosure moratorium" is a temporary stop in initiating or continuing foreclosures.

When Did the COVID-19 Foreclosure Moratorium End?

When the COVID-19 outbreak happened, the federal government and most states put a hold on foreclosures. The federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act initially imposed a foreclosure moratorium for federally backed mortgage loans starting March 18, 2020. This moratorium was extended many times during the pandemic but finally expired on July 31, 2021. The state-imposed foreclosure moratoriums have also ended.

Will a Foreclosure Moratorium Happen in 2025?

Not likely, at least not because of COVID-19. Because COVID-19 is now endemic rather than a pandemic, the federal government and states are highly unlikely to enact a foreclosure moratorium extension in 2025 due to this disease.

However, foreclosure moratoriums often go into effect after a natural disaster, like a severe wildfire, flood, or hurricane.

Foreclosure Moratoriums After a Natural Disaster

Following a natural disaster, you might qualify for certain foreclosure protections, like a moratorium. Generally, you can qualify for a moratorium if you have an FHA-insured loan, a Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, or VA-guaranteed loan, and you meet specific criteria. For example, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) often provides a 90-day moratorium on foreclosures of FHA-insured home mortgages following natural disasters.

Other Kinds of Mortgage Relief Might Be Available

In addition, loan modifications and forbearances (a temporary suspension or reduction in payments) are often available to borrowers with FHA-insured, VA-guaranteed, and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans who have gone through a disaster and are struggling to make their mortgage payments.

How to Get Help If You Have a Government-Backed Loan

Here's how to find help:

• To get information about different options for homeowners with an FHA-insured loan, go to FHA's Disaster Relief Options for FHA Homeowners website.
• For Fannie Mae loans, visit Fannie's Disaster Help for Homeowners webpage.
• For Freddie Mac loans, go to the Freddie Mac Disaster Relief website.
• If you have a VA-guaranteed loan, you can find information on the VA loan disaster relief webpage.

How to Get Help If You Have Another Kind of Loan

Mortgage lenders and servicers often also provide relief from foreclosure by offering flexible loss mitigation options to borrowers following a natural disaster. Possible relief options include loan modification, forbearance, a waiver of late fees, and suspending delinquency reporting to credit bureaus.

How to Get Help From FEMA

Additionally, FEMA offers financial assistance to individuals and families whose property has been damaged or destroyed as a result of a federally declared disaster so they can make their mortgage payments or repair the home. Go to www.fema.gov for more information.

Foreclosure Moratoriums and Mortgage Relief Following the 2025 Texas Floods

Following the Texas floods in early July 2025, FHA issued a 90-day foreclosure moratorium on FHA-insured single-family mortgages in the areas of Kerr County affected. The moratorium prohibits loan servicers from starting or completing foreclosure actions on forward mortgages and Home Equity Conversion (reverse) mortgages in the Kerr County Presidentially Declared Major Disaster Area.

If you have a Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac loan and were affected by the floods, you can get a 12-month forbearance, meaning your payments can be suspended for a year. While specific mortgage relief hasn't been announced for VA-guaranteed loans, you can helpful find information on the VA loan disaster relief webpage.

In addition, many lenders offer mortgage relief options to homeowners following a natural disaster, such as forbearances. Call your loan servicer to find out what alternatives are available.

Foreclosure Moratoriums and Mortgage Relief Following the 2025 Los Angeles Area Wildfires

Foreclosure Moratorium For Certain Loans If You Apply to a Homeowner Assistance Fund Program

On March 11, 2021, President Joe Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 into law. This Act created a Homeowners Assistance Fund, a mortgage-relief program, to provide $10 billion to the states to help struggling homeowners. The states, plus the District of Columbia, set up various programs with their allocated funding to distribute the money and assist financially-distressed homeowners. These state-run programs help homeowners pay overdue and future mortgage payments and other housing costs, like past-due utility costs, property taxes, homeowners' association fees, and more. While many of these programs have used all of their allocated money, a few programs are still open.

If you have a Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac loan and your mortgage servicer learns that you've applied to your state's Homeowner Assistance Fund program, the servicer must suspend any foreclosure activity for up to 60 days. Again, most Homeowner Assistance Fund programs have run out of funding and have closed. Still, check with your state's housing agency to find out if the Homeowner Assistance Fund program (or any other housing assistance programs) remain open in your state.

To find out if Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac owns your mortgage loan, use Fannie's mortgage loan lookup tool and Freddie Mac's loan lookup tool. You can also contact your servicer to ask if Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac owns your loan, or call 800-232-6643 (Fannie Mae) or 800-373-3343 (Freddie Mac).

CFPB Cautions Servicers Not to Foreclose When Homeowner Seeks Homeowner Assistance Fund Assistance

Even if you don't have a Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac loan or live somewhere that doesn't provide a foreclosure suspension if you apply to a Homeowner Assistance Fund program, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) published a statement addressing this issue. It advised servicers to ensure mortgage borrowers aren't improperly referred to foreclosure while seeking help from a Homeowner Assistance Fund program.

The CFPB, which oversees certain lenders, also emphasized that foreclosing on a borrower while a Homeowner Assistance Fund application is pending "will merit increased scrutiny."

Ways to Avoid Foreclosure

Mortgage help is available, even if a foreclosure moratorium isn't. If you're behind in mortgage payments, you might qualify for an alternative that will allow you to save your home. Or you might be eligible for an option where you give up the property without going through a foreclosure.

Various Other Loss Mitigation Options Might Be Available

After you submit a loss mitigation application to your loan servicer, you might receive another kind of offer allowing you to stay in your home, like a repayment plan, loan modification, or payment deferral.

Alternatively, if you can come up with the funds, you could redeem your home before or, depending on state law, after the foreclosure, or complete a loan reinstatement.

Or, if you'd like to leave the property without going through a foreclosure, you might be able to complete a short sale or deed in lieu of foreclosure.

Use Federal Protections Against Foreclosure to Your Advantage

Federal law usually prevents the servicer from starting a foreclosure until you're more than 120 days delinquent on the loan. You can use this time to work out a way to avoid foreclosure.

Also, under federal law, if you send the servicer a complete loss mitigation application before foreclosure starts, the servicer can't start the foreclosure unless and until:

• it tells you that you're not eligible for any foreclosure alternatives (and any appeal has been exhausted)
• you turn down all loss mitigation offers, or
• you don't meet the terms of a loss mitigation agreement, like if you don't make the payments for a trial modification.

If you're already in foreclosure and you send the servicer a complete application after foreclosure starts (but more than 37 days before a foreclosure sale), the servicer can't ask a court for a foreclosure judgment or order of sale, or conduct a foreclosure sale, until one of the three conditions mentioned above has been satisfied.

But the servicer generally doesn't have to review more than one loss mitigation application from you unless you bring the loan current after applying.

Use State Protections Against Foreclosure to Your Advantage

State foreclosure laws require servicers to complete specific steps to foreclose. Your state's laws, along with the federal and contractual rights you get in a foreclosure, might provide you with significant foreclosure protections.

Participate in Foreclosure Mediation

You might be able to delay a foreclosure or work out a way to avoid it by going to foreclosure mediation, if available.

Challenge the Foreclosure in Court

Depending on the circumstances, you might consider initiating a lawsuit to stop a nonjudicial foreclosure or challenging a judicial foreclosure in court.

Consider Filing for Bankruptcy

You can stop a foreclosure in its tracks by filing for bankruptcy—even at the last minute. After filing a bankruptcy petition, an "automatic stay" immediately goes into effect. The stay acts as an injunction prohibiting the bank from foreclosing on your home or otherwise trying to collect its debt. So, any foreclosure activity must stop.

Filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy will probably just delay a foreclosure, while you might be able to stop a foreclosure from happening with a Chapter 13 bankruptcy. Talk to a bankruptcy attorney to learn if bankruptcy makes sense for you.

Getting More Foreclosure Help

To learn more about your legal rights in a foreclosure, consider talking to a foreclosure attorney. A lawyer can advise you about foreclosure alternatives, your rights in a foreclosure under federal law, tell you about any state laws that protect you in the process, and help you fight a foreclosure, if you choose to do so.

If you need more information about loss mitigation options, a HUD-approved housing counselor can explain the alternatives to you in more detail and help you deal with your mortgage servicer. Go to hud.gov to find a housing counseling agency near you, or call 800-569-4287.

If your loan is owned or insured by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FHA, VA, or the USDA's Rural Housing Service, you can contact that entity to find out about foreclosure relief.