New York City, Dec 18 (THAINDIAN NEWS) This can surely be called a Christmas miracle by the believers, or it can surely be called as a welcome festive gift, by all the affected parties. As Citigroup Inc. has decided to suspend all foreclosures and evictions for the next 30 days, as they attempt to find ‘long-term fundamental alternatives’ for the growing problem, reports MSNBC. According to the New York based bank, the suspension will be in effect until January 17, 2010, and applies only to borrowers whose home loans are owned by the Citigroup.

The head of the company’s mortgage division said in an interview, “We want our borrowers to have a much less stressful time, to spend their time with their families during the holidays as opposed to worrying about their homes.” So this implies that all the foreclosures and the evictions that were about to happen will be stalled till 17th January 2010. And this move is going to happily affect around 4000 and more families, who were staring at a foreclosure in the middle of the winters and in the festive season.

The families who were going to be evicted in the middle of the festive season are very happy at this surprise bit of good news, that the Citigroup has decided to suspend foreclosures for a month.

Meanwhile a New York Times/CBS News poll was released on Monday, which revealed the astonishing results that 26 percent of unemployed Americans surveyed have been threatened with evictions or foreclosure since losing their jobs and 13 percent have lost their homes for not paying their mortgage or rent.