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""Fannie Mae"":http://www.fanniemae.com and ""Neighborhood Housing Services of South Florida"":http://nhssf.org/ (NHSSF) celebrated the one-year anniversary of Fannie Mae's South Florida Mortgage Help Center on Thursday.
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Since opening its doors in March 2010, the South Florida Mortgage Help Center has worked with more than 1,000 struggling families with loans owned by Fannie Mae. Of these, more than 64 percent received a retention solution that allowed them to remain in their homes, the GSE reported.
Retention solutions included loan modifications, forbearances, and repayment plans. On average, Fannie Mae says the Help Center staff is able to process the mortgage and communicate an outcome to a customer within 30 days.
Through the Help Center, families are able to meet one-on-one with trained mortgage specialists to discuss their financial situation. These housing advisors, who speak English, Spanish, and Creole, guide customers through the broad range of foreclosure prevention options available to them and work closely with mortgage servicers to ensure an efficient response time, Fannie explained.
[COLUMN_BREAK]Diana Dolphin, a customer of the South Florida Mortgage Help Center, said, ""I fell behind on my mortgage last year after my salary was reduced just as I began repaying my student loans. As a single mother, I was terrified of losing my home.
""The Help Center staff worked with me to find an affordable solution for my family, and thanks to their help, we are able to stay in our home. I hope that other struggling homeowners reach out to the Help Center so that they too can work with people they trust to help them avoid foreclosure,"" Dolphin said.
The South Florida Mortgage Help Center was the first of six facilities Fannie Mae opened in hard-hit cities across the country to assist borrowers struggling to make their mortgage payments. Additional Help Centers are expected to open this year.
""Our top priority is to ensure that struggling homeowners have access to the help they need,"" said Jeff Hayward, SVP of Fannie Mae's National Servicing Organization. ""The Mortgage Help Centers are an essential component of our goal to bring stability to the housing market and minimize the negative impact foreclosure has on families and communities.""
Services available at the Center include reviewing mortgage loans with families who are behind on their mortgage or may be at-risk of foreclosure, discussing loan modification and other alternatives to foreclosure, processing their documentation, and helping them secure a decision on any pending loan workout efforts.
The Help Center staff also work to counteract fraudulent groups charging fees for modifications and foreclosure prevention services, and other mortgage-related scams.
