Relief is available, however. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac released statements reminding borrowers of the options available to distressed homeowners who were affected by the storm. Under the disaster relief policies of both organizations, mortgage servicers can waive late fees and grant a 12-month forbearance period for homeowners whose properties were damaged or destroyed. In some cases, servicers may also work with a borrower to determine whether additional assistance via a loan modification is necessary given the homeowner’s particular situation.

Additionally, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced that affected homeowners in Cleveland, Lincoln, McClain, Oklahoma, and Pottawatomie counties with mortgages backed by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) will be granted a 90-day forbearance period on all foreclosure proceedings.

Borrowers are encouraged to contact their mortgage servicer – the company that they send their monthly mortgage payment to – in order to receive assistance and determine the options available to them. Victims of the Oklahoma tornado who believe they are at risk of foreclosure can also call our HOPE Hotline at 888-995-HOPE (4673) to speak with a professionally trained counselor about their unique mortgage situation.

Why does this matter, anyway? Finding out who owns your loan becomes especially important when you realize you may be in danger of falling behind on your mortgage. The owner of your loan is the only entity that can agree to a mortgage modification, refinance, or other form of mortgage relief. And various government mortgage relief programs are often specific to the owner of your loan – for example, the Making Home Affordable modification and refinance programs are specific to loans that are owned by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Similarly, the recently announced Streamlined Modification Program is available only to homeowners with Fannie Mae- and Freddie Mac-backed loans.

So how do you find out who owns your loan? That part is actually quite simple. Our housing counselors, who are available by calling 888-995-HOPE (4673), have the expertise and tools to help you determine who owns your loan. Counselors can then use their direct relationships within many lenders’ loss mitigation departments to initiate a three-way conference call between you and your lender to discuss the most appropriate solutions to your mortgage issue.

Also, if you’d like to quickly find out if either Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac owns your loan, both organizations offer the following loan look-up tools:

• Fannie Mae loan look-up: https://knowyouroptions.com/loanlookup
• Freddie Mac loan look-up: https://ww3.freddiemac.com/corporate/

Yesterday, Freddie Mac announced that the Streamlined Modification program, an initiative that was originally scheduled to start July 1, 2013, is now available to all eligible borrowers nationwide. Under this program, borrowers with loans backed by Freddie Mac that are at least 90 – but no more than 720 – days delinquent may qualify for a loan modification without having to submit financial or hardship documentation to their servicer. 

Here’s how the Streamlined Modification Program will work: all eligible borrowers will receive a letter with a modification offer from their servicers that will include details of a three-month trial period plan. The borrower can then choose to accept the offer by submitting a first trial period payment; if the borrower demonstrates their ability to pay their mortgage payments on time for three months, the modification will then become permanent.

The streamlined modification “offers” can reduce your monthly mortgage payment in a variety of ways, including adjusting interest rates, extending payment terms to 40 years, or, in some cases, providing principal forbearance. While counselors at our HOPE Hotline cannot tell you if you qualify for the program before Freddie Mac has contacted you, they can walk you through the various modification possibilities to make sure that it would make sense for your unique circumstances. To speak to an HPF counselor for free about the various Streamline Modification terms, call 888-995-HOPE (4673).

Additionally, if you would like to find out whether Freddie Mac owns your loan, use this self-service lookup tool.

For additional resources and more information on the Streamlined Modification Program, please click here or see this Freddie Mac FAQ sheet.

Congress passed a bill last week containing several provisions that impact homeowners. One such provision is the extension of the 2007 Mortgage Debt Relief Act that enables struggling homeowners to avoid paying federal taxes on forgiven mortgage debt from short sales or loan modifications.

A second provision affecting homeowners is the reinstatement of a tax deduction for mortgage-insurance premiums, including both those paid to the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) as well as private mortgage insurers.

Separate from the fiscal cliff negotiations, reports of a possible expansion to the HARP refinance program and news of the $8.5 billion dollar mortgage settlement with 10 servicers could result in even more relief for a wider net of distressed homeowners. These tax break extensions and possible program expansions could be good news to many struggling homeowners, especially since unemployment and wage reduction will likely continue to negatively affect homeowners’ finances into the New Year.

We encourage all homeowners who are worried about their financial situation to call the HPF HOPE Hotline to go over their budget and learn about their options. Counselors are available every day, around the clock, at 888-995-HOPE.

In his piece, reporter Christopher Matthews argues that recent housing sector improvements, such as the rise in home prices and decline in foreclosure activity, will not result in a meaningful recovery unless unemployment drops or wages increase. His insights match what we hear every day first hand from the people who call our Homeowner’s HOPE Hotline at 888-995-HOPE. Rare indeed is the struggling homeowner who is behind on his or her mortgage, but current with all the other average household debts, such as car loans, utility bills, student loans, and the like. Unemployment, underemployment, unexpected medical bills…. any of these life challenges could significantly change someone’s ability to stay afloat – and can do so practically overnight. Accordingly, homeowners who are current with their payments today but are living off their savings or are making ends meet paycheck-to-paycheck could easily join the millions now facing foreclosure if their funds dry up.

Our view on what’s ahead?  First, that the threat of foreclosure will remain a harsh reality for millions of American homeowners. While the crisis may be abating nationally, it is far from over. While we expect to receive calls to our HPF HOPE Hotline from thousands of homeowners every week, we know that many more will not reach out for foreclosure prevention guidance, either to HPF housing counselors or their bank. These hard-to-reach homeowners often struggle alone to remedy their challenges out of a sense of hopelessness, fear, indecision, lack of trust, embarrassment or some combination of all these and other emotional and attitudinal triggers. HPF will continue to work aggressively in the year ahead to try to connect with these homeowners and help them see that foreclosure is not the only option.

Also, as previously reported, we’ve seen a dramatic increase in calls from homeowners who are current on their mortgages but are in danger of default; we expect that trend to continue in 2013.  More and more homeowners are calling to speak to our housing counselors before they get behind on their payments. Our counselors have helped untold numbers of homeowners hold onto their homes by taking a broader view of their financial picture and making meaningful changes in their spending habits to follow more realistic budgets.  We expect that this already- underserved need among concerned homeowners for such reliable, holistic one-on-one financial counseling that’s available at their convenience to grow in 2013.

FYI:  Those interested in learning more about what may be ahead for housing may be interested in a recap of a five-part series of 2013 housing predictions in the Wall Street Journal; it notes that the housing market remains fragile due to the number of underwater borrowers, but also predicts that the “shadow” inventory will continue to shrink and that credit-lending standards will remain tight in 2013.

Wishing you all a happy, healthy, and financially stable 2013.

To date, we’ve helped more than six million homeowners in need of mortgage assistance and information find sustainable solutions to their unique financial challenges and, whenever possible, to stop foreclosure and stay in their homes.  By any measure, that’s a lot of people — and there are millions more still struggling and in need of reliable, accurate information on their mortgage options.  At last count, we’re still getting an average 5,000 calls to the Hotline every day.

And while the call volume may be holding steady, we have detected a slight shift in who is doing the calling.

As we reported earlier, whereas people in default on their mortgage used to be the HOPE Hotline’s primary caller, there’s been an uptick in calls from mortgage borrowers who are current but on the brink of default. These borrowers now make up 50% of our call volume — that’s a 70% increase from last year.

What does that likely tell us about the changing profile of today’s distressed homeowner?

While it has always been overly simplistic, inaccurate, and unfair to paint the millions of people who are underwater, behind on their payments, or had lost their home to foreclosure as irresponsible borrowers, we have known firsthand that there is a wide array of homeowners who call us for help, from those who are severely delinquent to those have never missed a payment.

The latest data on our callers report that they are current on their mortgages, but they are actually in financial duress.  Many have upwards of $20,000 in unsecured or credit card debt as well as monthly budget deficits of, on average, $755. Even more alarming, three out of four of our callers tell us that a loss of income, whether from unemployment, underemployment, or loss of hours, was the reason they were finding themselves on the verge of default.

These are largely homeowners who were classified as low-risk borrowers when they first took out their mortgages — good job history, strong wages, easily manageable debt obligations, etc.  Yet something changed.  They experienced some type of economic setback that changed their financial health, such as a job loss, medical problem, divorce, or a death of their spouse.  Although they’ve kept the mortgage payments going, they tell us it’s getting harder and harder for them to do so and that here is great fear that they won’t be able to do so much longer.  Savings are wiped out, credit cards are maxed, and the 401k has been raided.

Hopefully, this emerging pattern we’re seeing doesn’t result in a second wave for the housing crisis.  With very limited options available to homeowners who are struggling but not yet delinquent, those of us working to resolve this housing crisis need to be thinking collectively about ways to help these borrowers — before their crises could potentially set the housing market back again.

Did this emerging caller profile sound familiar?  If so, call our Homeowner’s HOPE Hotline at 888-995-HOPE (4673).  We’d like to try to help.