Mortgage Foreclosure & Refinance Resource

Following up to our last post which cited the Mortgage Bankers Association survey here is another gem from it. At a time when mortgage lenders were touting efforts to help homeowners avoid foreclosure, delinquent borrowers were almost twice as likely to lose their homes as they were to reach an agreement with their lender that would allow them to stay put, according to the survey.

The survey provides insight into the third quarter last year, when the nation’s foreclosure rate, 1.69 percent of outstanding loans, reached a historic high. The industry has since agreed to a Bush administration plan that will freeze rates for 600,000 homeowners with adjustable-rates loans. Consumer advocates have said that the plan does not go far enough in preventing foreclosures.

The Mortgage Bankers’ report found that lenders began foreclosure on 62 percent of delinquent borrowers during the third quarter and that homeowners who did get help were more likely to have their lender set up a repayment plan than to lower or freeze their interest rates.