Homeowners Late on Loans Often Don't Seek Help

USA Today (01/31/08) P. 1B; Knox, Noelle
A survey expected to be released on Jan. 31 reveals that 58 percent of delinquent homeowners do not realize that their mortgage lender may offer some assistance that could keep them in their homes and that 56 percent do not know that free counseling is available. Even so, the inability of mortgage lenders and loan servicers to make contact with homeowners is the biggest challenge to stemming the rising tide of foreclosures. "Servicers are unable to contact borrowers in more than half of the foreclosures we see," says Ingrid Beckles, vice president of servicing for Freddie Mac. The Freddie Mac/Roper poll of 1,400 delinquent borrowers also shows that 25 percent of homeowners who were at least three months behind on their loan did not contact their lender or loan servicer because they did not have enough money to make a payment, were in denial about their financial problems or mistakenly assumed that no assistance was available.