Helping Borrowers Avoid Foreclosure
A Freddie Mac-sponsored study by Roper Public Affairs and Media found that 74% of home mortgage borrowers were very interested in working with housing counselors to avoid foreclosure, yet 61% of late-paying borrowers were unaware that there are workout options that could help them and 64% of those borrowers were unaware that housing counselors are available to help explain these options.
Freddie Mac is committed not only to helping more people get a home, but also keeping them in it. To that extent, we require the mortgage companies that service our loans to look for options that help borrowers who are delinquent on their mortgages keep their homes and avoid foreclosure. Working together with those companies, from 2000 through 2005 we have helped over 228,000 financially troubled borrowers keep their homes. We also provide advice and tips on how our servicers can help borrowers avoid foreclosure.
In addition, we work to educate borrowers about the options that might be available should they fall on hard times and start to miss mortgage payments, to help them act quickly to avoid foreclosure.
We also worked with an unprecedented coalition of industry groups to create and place a first-ever national public service announcement campaign about foreclosure avoidance on television stations across the nation. The NeighborWorks America campaign, is cosponsored by Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, the Mortgage Bankers Association and a cross-section of 20 mortgage industry leaders.
And we have staff in the field providing local radio interviews and helping our loan servicers educate their customers on foreclosure avoidance. Listen to one radio interview.Finally, since 2000, Freddie Mac has taken unilateral, voluntary leadership positions that have helped improve subprime market practices.