HOPE NOW is yet another foreclosure prevention strategy alliance of "counselors, mortgage companies, investors, and other mortgage market participants" to help trouble homeowners. The alliance joins the efforts of Neighborworks and the Obama administration's Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), which are all sponsored by the U.S. Department of Treasury and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
The HOPE NOW workshops have already helped almost 2,100 people that needed to modify their home loans. The last press release from HAMP stated only 116,000 homes had been saved, but another million are in the process and millions more are hoping to reached in the next few years. These programs specifically target underwater mortgages, a crisis that has run rampant across the housing market the past five years.
“Since 2008, HOPE NOW has held more than 60 of these events nationwide, and we are proud of the fact that the industry has come together with the government and the nonprofit community to offer a much needed face-to-face outreach model,” stated Faith Schwartz, executive director of HOPE NOW.
"Nearly one million homeowners across the country have already received help from the
Making Home Affordable Program," stated Phyllis Caldwell, Chief of the U.S. Department
of the Treasury's Homeownership Preservation Office, "These events provide more
homeowners the opportunity to meet with their mortgage company one-on-one to discuss
their options -- for free."
Two workshops were held in February on the 17th and the 26th in Houston, TX and Sacramento, CA respectively. March workshops are already schedule for Tucson, Arizona; Phoenix; Portland, Oregon; and Seattle, Washington. Scheduled April events so far include Reno and Las Vegas, Nevada, which is one of the U.S.'s hardest hit states in terms of foreclosures.
The workshops are also helping people that have already begun the loan modification process, which can be tedious and time consuming. Borrowers in the process of making their homes more affordable have consistently complained about inefficiencies in the lenders, such as asking for documents repeatedly, never following up and declining the modification in the end.
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Source: HOPW NOW, Support and Guidance for Homeowners
Written by Amy Munday
Huliq.com
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