LA Digs - Northeast LA Real Estate Blog

How are you doing? What’s happening with your job? What do you think is going to happen with it post-Corona? 

These questions and more are in the air along with all those droplets we are avoiding. We can only ask, actually, on the phone or on those endless Zoom calls (for those of us who are trying to live with the new normal physical distancing, yet stay in touch).  We all wish we were Mr. Zoom. He is definitely going to profit from this pandemic.

But you are reading this post because it’s about real estate, right? So what’s going on with the housing market? In our little corner of the real estate market, Northeast Los Angeles and surrounding areas, it’s always interesting and seldom like the national or even the California picture.

As news and information about relief assistance swirls around in the midst of this crisis, there are lots of questions about what to do with your mortgage payments. To some, it can be interpreted that if you just don't pay your mortgage payment right now all will be forgiven. This is not true, and can have some serious affects on your financial health, and truly the health of the economy as a whole. 

Here is information from a lender friend of ours, Scott Groves with Movement Mortgage, that explains forbearance and how it works:

"If you, or your clients, are in dire-straights and having to make the toughest of financial decisions - like, what bills do I pay or how do I buy food - then I understand that you must do EVERYTHING you can to improve your cash-flow situation.

That being said, applying for a FORBEARANCE on your mortgage payment should be an ABSOLUTE LAST RESORT when it comes to your finances.

Things are changing every day in these wild times we live in!

Per the California Associaton of Realtors - "On March 28, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) updated its list of essential services during the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis and expressly included residential real estate. Since Governor Newsom’s March 4, 2020 order incorporates this list, the order now includes residential and commercial real estate, including settlement services, as essential services in California. However, if a city or county has an order with a more restrictive standard regarding what qualifies as an essential service, or more restrictions on activities, those guidelines will still govern the activities of a licensee.