Proven solutions for today's challenges in preserving homeownership

At this critical time for the market and homeowners, we are vigorously enhancing our long-standing commitment to help borrowers build and maintain hard-earned equity through homeownership. We are continuously refining options to work with a variety of industry participants to help more at-risk borrowers keep their homes whenever possible.

How successful have we been?

With your help, we've been successful in helping thousands of families keep their homes. Working with you, last year:

• Freddie Mac and its Servicers helped nearly 45,000 delinquent borrowers avoid foreclosure and remain in their homes.
• Specifically, we provided more than 33,900 repayment plans, 8,800 loan modifications, and assisted 2,100 borrowers through forbearance.

Since 2000, Freddie Mac and its servicers kept over 323,000 families out of foreclosure and in their homes.

Useful tools and resources

As you continue to respond to the high volume of delinquencies, use our default management requirements, tools, and resources to find the right solutions for your borrowers.

Here are some of the tools you can use to help create homeownership preservation awareness among your borrowers and help them avoid the pitfalls of foreclosure:

• CreditSmart® is Freddie Mac's premier, multilingual, financial education curriculum designed to help consumers learn how to build and maintain better credit, and prepare for successful long-term homeownership. The curriculum includes a comprehensive module on Preserving Homeownership: Protecting Your Home Investment, which covers alternatives to foreclosure and a variety of topics from understanding home equity to recognizing scams.
• Owning and Keeping a Home, Freddie Mac's online resource for consumers, includes guidance on responsible homeownership and foreclosure avoidance.
• Our Avoiding Foreclosure Toolkit provides ready-to-use materials designed to help you promote foreclosure avoidance options. According to a 2007 Freddie Mac and Roper Public Affairs survey of 2,400 homeowners, 57 percent of delinquent borrowers are unaware of the workout options their lenders can offer. With our Avoiding Foreclosure Toolkit you:
  • Can let your borrowers know, in English, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese, to call you early and first if they begin having difficulty with their mortgage payment. 
  • Must customize the materials with your own contact information and logo. Please note that you are responsible for compliance with all applicable fair lending and borrower disclosure requirements when using our toolkit.

We'll help you work with borrowers in default

We have the essential servicing tools and workout options that enable you to quickly and easily identify at-risk borrowers sooner and increase the probability of a successful workout. Leverage these tools to ensure you work effectively and efficiently with defaulted borrowers:

• Review a quick-click refresher of important main points to remember while helping borrowers who are in default.
• Put the borrowers who are most at-risk at the forefront of your loss mitigation activities by using EarlyIndicator®, the industry's premier default risk-ranking scoring tool. Now more than ever, it is an essential part of organizing monthly collections and loss mitigation call campaigns.
• Analyze and structure foreclosure alternatives using Workout Prospector® to access key loan data and select the most viable foreclosure alternatives for your customers. Using EarlyIndicator with Workout Prospector gives you the assurance that you're contacting the borrowers most in need, and analyzing and structuring foreclosure alternatives consistently and efficiently based on each borrower's unique circumstances.
• Visit The Learning Center and gain in-depth knowledge about alternatives to foreclosure, loss mitigation, foreclosure and bankruptcy, and many related topics. Take advantage of our recorded sessions, easy-to-print references, and other educational resources to learn at your own pace and convenience.

We recognize your efforts

Your hard work to preserve homeowners' dreams helps families stay in their homes and preserves neighborhoods. Your successful workouts also generate tangible benefits through our Workout Incentive Program.

Last year we paid Servicers about $12 million in incentives for successfully preserving homeownership, including more than $7 million in cash bonuses to Servicers for their successful workouts.