MortgageKeeper, the database that connects struggling homeowners with qualified local sources of assistance, has snagged another top tier servicer.
Bank of America has joined Saxon Mortgage Services, Ocwen Loan Servicing, and the Homeownership Preservation Foundations toll-free HOPE hotline as MortgageKeeper clients, president Rochelle Nawrocki Gorey said at the Mortgage Banker Association's annual convention in Chicago.
Gorey also reported that Ocwen has re-upped with MortgageKeeper, adding the firm's new Spanish language version to its arsenal of tools to assist mortgagors find help paying their utility bills, locate inexpensive child care or uncover other sources of assistance that may keep them from defaulting on their mortgages.
During the third quarter, the Downer's Grove, Ill.-based MortgageKeeper linked more owners than ever with public and private sources of help on behalf of its servicer clients. Nearly 224,000 referrals were made during the three-month period.
"The number of homeowners in financial trouble keeps rising, and local assistance is the best, most reliable means of help," Gorey said.
Utility assistance was the most requested of the 20 different categories in the firm's database, accounting for 15% of all referrals. Food assistance at 13% and employment services at 12% were the two other most frequently requested service categories.
Housing counselors and services which subscribe to MortgageKeeper provide troubled borrowers with an exhaustive, fully-vetted list of sources of help in seconds. Services are available in all 50 states, but the company has a major focus in the 80 metropolitan areas where roughly 90% of all foreclosures take place. The database contains more than 6,000 resources nationwide.
The new Spanish language version will be particularly helpful, said Gorey, noting that Hispanics have been particularly hard by the economic recession. Currently, more than 2,000 English-speaking customers access the MortgageKeeper database daily.
