The Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, known as Freddie Mac, announced Friday that it will provide mortgage servicers the power to grant unemployed homeowners who have Freddie Mac-backed mortgages a one-year break on their mortgage payments, the Chicago Tribune reports. The change takes effect February 1 and allows mortgage servicers to provide six months of relief without Freddie Mac approval and six months more with approval — a six-month increase over the current policy. Fannie Mae, the other mortgage provider, is expected to announce a similar policy later. Seriously delinquent mortgages rose sharply in September, and home foreclosures jumped 21 percent in the third quarter of 2011.
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