2.3 Million Foreclosures Prevented In Past 14 Months By Mortgage Industry

HOPE NOW, the private sector alliance of mortgage servicers, counselors, and investors that has been working aggressively to prevent foreclosures, today announced that nearly 2.3 million homeowners have avoided foreclosure and have been able to stay in their homes due to the continuing efforts of HOPE NOW and the broader mortgage industry.

In August 2008, mortgage servicers helped homeowners avoid foreclosure by completing more than 189,000 mortgage workouts. Workouts include both modifications to the terms of existing mortgages and repayment plans. Barring a life event such as a job loss, death, or illness, all workouts are intended to enable a homeowner to remain in that home as long as he or she wishes to do so.

According to Faith Schwartz, HOPE NOW¡¯s executive director, the latest results show that the industry is continuing to work hard to help homeowners. ¡°Without HOPE NOW, the current mortgage and financial crises would be more serious and harder to turn around,¡± she said. ¡°We will continue to work hard to help homeowners and stabilize communities.¡±

The HOPE NOW report estimates that on an industry-wide basis:

¡Ü Mortgage servicers have helped 2.26 million homeowners avoid foreclosure since July 2007.

¡Ü Mortgage servicers provided loan workouts for approximately 189,000 borrowers in August 2008.

¡Ü In August, approximately 110,000 homeowners received repayment plans; approximately 79,000 received loan modifications.

¡Ü Nearly 53 percent of homeowners with subprime loans who received workouts through mortgage servicers received modifications.

A summary table of the results is attached and can be found at http://www.hopenow.com/media/press_release.php.

HOPE NOW also announced today the results of a separate survey of subprime adjustable rate mortgages with rates resetting in 2008. The results, reported by nine companies representing approximately 60 percent of subprime loans, are as follows:

¡¤ Approximately 1.1 million subprime loans were scheduled to reset between January and August 2008.

¡¤ Since rates began to reset on these loans in January 2008, those loans that were current at reset and subsequently started the foreclosure process account for 1.2 percent of remaining loans.

¡¤ Nearly 91,000 of the 1.1 million loans have been modified. Over 75 percent of these modifications are for 5 years or longer.

¡¤ Almost 449,000 of the subprime adjustable rate loans that were originally scheduled to reset during this period were paid in full when the homeowner refinanced the loan or sold the property.

ABOUT HOPE NOW

HOPE NOW is an alliance of counselors, mortgage market participants, and mortgage servicers that is working to help as many homeowners as possible avoid foreclosure and stay in their homes. For more information, including a full list of members, go to www.hopenow.com

HOPE NOW coordinates a nationwide campaign to reach homeowners who may be at risk of losing their homes. So far, HOPE NOW has sent almost 1.8 million letters. About 17 percent of homeowners receiving the HOPE NOW-coordinated letters have contacted their servicer, six times more than the routine 2-3 percent response rate servicers receive when they send their own mailings.

In the past seven months, HOPE NOW has connected thousands of homeowners with their lender and/or a HUD-certified housing counselor at workshops in 22 cities. Additional workshops are being scheduled around the country.

In addition, HOPE NOW members recently agreed to make substantial additional efforts to contact homeowners whose mortgages will reset in the coming months and to further expedite the process used to determine how best to keep them in their homes.

The Homeownership Preservation Foundation¡¯s Homeowner¡¯s HOPE¢â Hotline (888-995-HOPE¢â) - available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year - receives an average of more than 4,000 calls a day. There is no cost to homeowners for contacting a nonprofit advisor by calling 888-995-HOPE¢â.