We feel your pain (in our bottom line)

This is a public service announcement that you're going to start seeing on TV in July, and which may run for as long as three years. It was produced by NeighborWorks America and the Ad Council, but it's mortgage lenders who put up the $1 million it cost to produce it and related TV, radio, print and Internet spots.

If these spots had credits, here's a list of companies that would be credited for pitching in: Countrywide Home Loans, Washington Mutual, Bank of America, Option One Mortgage Corp., Chase, Citi, EMC Mortgage Corporation, GMAC ResCap, HSBC North America, Ocwen Loan Servicing LLC, National City Mortgage, American Financial Services, and SunTrust Mortgage.

Why would lenders pay for ads that acknowledge the mental anguish that financial troubles can bring on a family? Lenders rack up $30,000 or more in costs on every mortgage they foreclose.  If, as NeighborWorks predicts, one million homes enter the foreclosure process this year, that's a $30 billion tab for lenders. These ads are designed to get people to call their lenders (via a hotline run by the Homeownership Preservation Foundation, 888-995-HOPE) to try to work out an alternative to foreclosure -- which half of people who end in foreclosure never do.

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