The Hope Now alliance of mortgage servicers and investors is holding workshops around the country to meet face-to-face with distressed homeowners.
Freddie Mac on Tuesday announced it’s going even farther, hiring a company to go door-to-door to meet with delinquent borrowers in their homes to collect missing information and documents needed to begin three-month trial loan modifications under the Obama administration’s Making Home Affordable Program.
Hope Now said recent workshops in Boston and Tampa attracted nearly 1,800 at-risk homeowners. About one in three of the 781 homeowners who showed up in Boston were granted workouts before leaving the workshop, HOPE NOW said.
Hope Now plans additional workshops in Southern California and Atlanta in October. Freddie Mac maintains a comprehensive list of foreclosure prevention workshops hosted not only by HOPE NOW, but other counseling organizations and state and local governments.
Meanwhile, Freddie Mac says it has hired Titanium Solutions Inc. to meet one-on-one with borrowers in their homes. Company representatives will help borrowers seeking Making Home Affordable loan modifications review program requirements and determine which documents are needed, securing signatures and walking them through the process, Freddie Mac said.
To minimize potential fraud by imposters, representatives will not be permitted to accept mortgage payments or any other money from borrowers.
In a recent report, Freddie Mac said 3.13 percent of mortgages it guaranteed were delinquent in August by 90 days or more, up from 1.11 percent a year ago. The percentage of seriously delinquent loans guaranteed by Fannie Mae hit 4.17 percent in July, up from 1.45 percent a year ago, that company said in another report.
The Mortgage Bankers Association last month reported the seriously delinquent rate for prime loans increased to 5.44 percent during the second quarter, while 26.52 percent of subprime loans were 90 days or more behind.
At the end of June, a record 13.16 percent of residential mortgages were delinquent by 30 days or more or in the foreclosure process, the MBA said (see story).
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