Home Loans Altered to Avert Foreclosures

Chicago Tribune (09/25/07)Countrywide Financial Corp. says it is working with borrowers who are having financial problems by offering them repayment plans, postponing payments, refinancing mortgages and modifying the terms of their home loans to avoid default. The largest mortgage lender in the country says its efforts will keep 35,000 borrowers from losing their homes to foreclosure. The Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department have called on mortgage lenders to do what they can to help keep borrowers in their homes. Last week, Moody's Investors Services said mortgage lenders have modified the terms of only about 1 percent of all subprime mortgages.