FHA further extends foreclosure, eviction moratorium for Helene and Milton victims

by Chris Clow

As communities impacted by the devastation of Hurricanes Helene and Milton continue to pick up the pieces, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) on Tuesday announced that it has further extended a moratorium on foreclosures and evictions for any FHA-financed single-family mortgages inside the designated Presidentially-Declared Major Disaster Areas (PDMDAs) associated with those disasters.

Set to expire on April 11 from an extension handed down in the final days of the Biden administration, the new deadline is July 10, aiming to provide those impacted in states including Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia “to seek federal, state, or local assistance and underscore HUD’s commitment to supporting Americans impacted by the hurricanes,” according to a press release issued by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

The extension was officially formalized in Mortgagee Letter (ML) 2025-10.

“Individuals and families across the Southeast are still putting pieces of their livelihoods back together following back-to-back hurricanes this fall,” said Scott Turner, secretary of HUD. “HUD remains committed to the long-term recovery of these impacted communities. Today’s action will allow more flexibility as our fellow Americans continue working to stabilize their families, properties and communities.”

The moratorium prohibits mortgage servicers from either initiating or completing foreclosure actions on the 1 million FHA-insured mortgages active across the impacted PDMDAs, which includes traditional forward mortgages as well as Home Equity Conversion Mortgages (HECMs), otherwise known as reverse mortgages.

The HUD release also included perspectives from the congressional delegations of the impacted states, including North Carolina Sens. Thom Tillis (R) and Ted Budd (R); Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.); and Reps. Greg Steube (Fla.); Rick Allen (R-Ga.); Morgan Griffith (R-Va.); and Chuck Edwards (R-N.C.).