Foreclosure Prevention Network Provides Needed Help
By: States: Indiana | Source: AARP.org
The collapse of the housing and credit markets is hitting Indiana especially hard.
Our mortgage foreclosure rate is among the highest in the country, continuing a trend that the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago traces as far back as 1991.
According to the Fed, 3 percent of all Indiana mortgages were in foreclosure in 2007, compared to 1.23 percent nationwide.
The picture–if not the comparison–worsened during the first three months of this year, with the Indiana rate climbing to 3.72 percent and the national rate hitting 2.47 percent, according to a Mortgage Bankers Association survey.
Reasons vary for Indiana’s historically high foreclosure rate, according to the Federal Reserve Bank. Notable factors appear to include the decline of Indiana manufacturing jobs, lower appreciation of Indiana home values, and some specific characteristics of Indiana home loans.
Those big-picture dynamics will not be readily addressed.
But AARP Indiana is responding to the immediate situation through its participation in a public-private collaborative effort called the Indiana Foreclosure Prevention Network. Other participants include state government, led by the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority, lenders, consumer credit counselors, and a range of local organizations.
Network activities follow two tracks.
The first involves a telephone hotline and Web site that provide assessments, information and trained counseling for homeowners in foreclosure or at risk of it. The toll-free phone number is 1-877-GET HOPE. The Web site is www.877gethope.org.
The hotline receives about 70 calls per day, according to Sherry Seiwert, executive director of the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority, and is on track to field 20,000 calls this year.
More than 11,000 people have visited the Web site, and 1,000 of them have completed an online education module that helps borrowers assess their situation and options.
The second track involves foreclosure prevention workshops at which borrowers meet directly with lenders to discuss foreclosure alternatives. An April event in Indianapolis drew more than 400 borrowers and 14 lenders, with outcomes ranging from the purely informational to refinancings that helped people stay in their homes.
Volunteers and staff from AARP Indiana participated in that event and will join similar workshops that are pending in five cities on Aug. 2. The workshops will be at Ivy Tech Community College campuses in Bloomington, Evansville, Gary, Lawrence (Marion County) and South Bend.
For a complete schedule and other details, visit the IFPN Web site, www.877gethope.org.
And look for AARP Indiana to continue to support the Indiana Foreclosure Prevention Network, and to advance consumer interests in mortgage lending and regulation.
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