HOPE NOW Servicers Assist More Than 2,700 Arizona Families at Homeownership Preservation Events

Events co-sponsored by Obama Administration’s Making Home Affordable Program and
NeighborWorks® America in Tucson and Phoenix

Washington, DC – March 17, 2010 – (RealEstateRama) — Fifteen HOPE NOW servicers assisted more than 2,700 homeowners from across Arizona, during four homeownership preservation events held last week.

In Tucson, 531 families attended a workshop at the Holiday Inn Tucson North on March 9th. Three more events were held in the Phoenix area at the Glendale Civic Center on March 11th, 12th and 13th. The total attendance for the three days in Phoenix was 2,176. The third day was a document collection event, specifically held for the purpose of collecting missing documents needed for Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) applications.

“The fact that so many people made the effort to come to the events in Arizona certainly underscores the need for these types of events in the region. The state has been especially hard hit by declining home values and high unemployment, and it is important for us to continue to reach out to Arizona homeowners. For families that were unable to attend, HOPE NOW encourages those folks to contact their mortgage servicer, call the Homeowner’s HOPE™ Hotline 888-995-HOPE or visit www.HOPENOW.com. There are plenty of free resources available to homeowners and there are solutions for them to stay in their homes,” said Faith Schwartz, Executive Director of the HOPE NOW Alliance.

There were many homeowner success stories at the Arizona events, including Bob Warner, from Mesa, AZ who attended the March 12th event in Glendale. “We were ready to walk away from our home if we weren’t able to reach a solution today. I spent all day here, but it ended far better than I had anticipated. I was able to reach an agreement with Wells Fargo that reduced my loan by almost $500 a month. I am taking away nothing but positives from this event and I now have some peace of mind,” said Mr. Warner.

Edward Delgado, Senior Vice-President of Wells Fargo Home Mortgage added, “Wells Fargo has participated in these outreach events since their inception back in 2008. We think it is important to keep as many customers in their homes as possible and work both face-to-face and over the phone on options that will provide payment relief to customers facing hardships.”

“I received a HAMP loan modification from Chase that is saving me more than $1,000 per month. I changed jobs and suffered some income loss, but luckily I was able to work out my mortgage by attending today’s event – and it took me less than an hour. The bottom line is if you get a letter from your lender asking you to attend one of these events, don’t take it for granted,” said Kevin Jones, of Chandler, AZ, who also attended the event on March 12th.

“By sending a team of experienced loan counselors to these events, we can work one on one with many homeowners and try to keep them in their homes,’ said Steve Stein, head of homeownership preservation at Chase. “These events supplement the 51 Chase Homeownership Centers we have opened across the country to talk face to face with struggling homeowners.”

These homeownership preservation events will continue throughout 2010, with events already lined up for Portland, OR (March 23rd), Seattle, WA (March 25th), Reno, NV (April 6th) and Las Vegas, NV (April 8th and 9th). Events in the New York City area are also tentatively scheduled for April. The workshops are co-sponsored by the Obama Administration’s Making Home Affordable Program and NeighborWorks® America.

For more information about upcoming events, visit www.HOPENOW.com.

HOPE NOW is the industry-created alliance of mortgage servicers, investors, counselors, and other mortgage market participants, brought together by the Financial Services Roundtable, Housing Policy Council and Mortgage Bankers Association, that  has developed and is implementing a coordinated plan to help as many homeowners as possible prevent foreclosure and stay in their homes. For more information, go to www.HopeNow.com or call the free Homeowner’s HOPE™ Hotline at (888) 995-HOPE.

The following companies are members of the HOPE NOW Alliance:

American Home Mortgage Servicing, Inc.
ASSURANT GROUP
Aurora Loan Services, Lehman Brothers
Bank of America
Bayview Financial
Carrington Mortgage Services
CITIGROUP
Fannie Mae
Freddie Mac
First Horizon
Genworth
GMAC
HomEq Servicing
HSBC USA
JP MORGAN/CHASE MANHATTAN
Lender Business Process Services, Inc.
Litton Loan Servicing
Loan Care
Marathon Asset Management
METLIFE
MGIC
Mortgage Electronic Registration System
Nationstar Mortgage LLC
Ocwen Loan Servicing
OneWest Bank
PMI Group, Inc.
PNC Mortgage
Quicken Loans
Radian
Residential Credit Solutions
RoundPoint Financial Group
Saxon Mortgage Services/ Morgan Stanley
Select Portfolio Servicing
State Farm
Strategic Recovery Group
SunTrust Mortgage, Inc.
Vericrest Financial
Wells Fargo