Foreclosure Prevention Group Claims Success in Modifying Mortgages

Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Topics: Economy, Politics, Other
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In the face of thousands of homes lost to foreclosure in the Greater Cleveland area --- and tens of thousands across the state --- a Boston-based foreclosure prevention group is coming to Northeast Ohio to host a mortgage restructuring fair. ideastream®'s David C. Barnett reports in our latest installment of "Facing the Mortgage Crisis"

The Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America --- better known as NACA --- has been addressing foreclosure issues in Boston since 1991, and the non-profit group is bringing that experience to Cleveland July 17th in a four-day foreclosure prevention event that will take place at Cleveland State University’s Wolstein Center.  It’s the kick-off of a ten-city tour that NACA CEO Bruce Marks describes as a cross-country caravan.

BRUCE MARKS: 500 people, in eight to ten buses, going from one city to another to another, over ten weeks.

The goal is to help homeowners-in-trouble succeed at what most have been unable to do so far --- restructure their mortgages.  Marks says NACA is streamlining a process that banks have been sluggish to do.

BRUCE MARKS:  What we’re setting up is a mobile servicing operation to do their job for them.  We do the outreach to the borrowers, because borrowers don’t trust the lenders any longer.  And we get the documents and the information from the borrowers, we submit it to the servicers and lenders, and they approve it --- end of story.

Marks says his group has been able to get mortgage lenders to approve a restructuring of the loans 80% of the time.  If true, that’s a far cry from the norm.  Loan modifications nationally are actually decreasing at a time when foreclosures are still rising.  And, according to a study last month of those modified mortgages across the country, only 17% actually lowered the principal, interest or fees that were owed. 

Additional Information

Information on NACA's "Save the Dream Tour"

More In This Series...

This feature is part of the series The Foreclosure Crisis.