Press Release

Oakland County Executive Calls Upon Area Housing Counselors to Help Families Threatened by Foreclosure

Pontiac, MI, USA (December 21, 2006) -- The impact of rising foreclosures on Oakland County families and communities is of great concern to county and community leaders. Besides losing earned equity, damaging credit and other monetary losses, losing a home to foreclosure and displacing a family causes emotional, physical and psychological distress. Foreclosures often mean declining property values while communities pay higher costs for police and fire protection, code enforcement among other administrative costs. Foreclosures also cost lenders and investors.

To help address these adverse impacts to our families, neighborhoods and business community, Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson has initiated foreclosure intervention and prevention actions led by a collaboration of housing counseling agencies including Oakland County, Oakland Livingston Human Service Agency (OLHSA) and Lighthouse of Oakland County.

"This group has developed immediate plans to help families already in the foreclosure process as well as educate families who may be behind on their mortgages about the process to deal with the delinquency," Patterson said. "While some foreclosures may be inevitable due to a prolonged decrease in household income, there are steps homeowners can take on their own or with the assistance of a housing counselor to stop the sheriff sale."

Oakland County has several housing counselors approved by the Department of Housing and Urban Development who assist with housing-related problems as a free service. If you need help with a foreclosure or are delinquent in your mortgage payments, call the following agencies immediately:

• Oakland County's Housing Counselor (248) 858-5402
• Lighthouse of Oakland County (248) 920-6200
• OLHSA (248) 209-2616

It is important that families begin the analysis as early as possible to halt the transition from delinquency to default and foreclosure. Here are self-help steps homeowners can take immediately:

• Identify the real reason you fell behind on your payments
• Determine if you have overcome the hardship that caused you to fall behind
• Track expenses
• Prepare a budget and review; create an emergency budget - eliminate all unnecessary expenses
• Eliminate/decrease discretionary spending until caught up (snacks at gas station, going out to eat, lottery tickets, reduce smoking, purchases from vending machines, unneeded clothing purchases, etc.)
• Free up income by eliminating paying for items you are not using or could do without: magazine subscriptions, extra cable channels, pay-per view and extra minutes on cell phone. Increase deductibles on insurances
• Put away all credit cards
• Increase income if possible
• Revise budget to see what you can reasonably pay on your mortgage (current payment plus additional on delinquency)
• Contact your lender - explain the situation and negotiate a doable workout plan
• Contact a legitimate HUD housing counseling agency if you need assistance
• Always pay your mortgage before any other debt

Mortgage companies can offer forbearance plans and loan modifications. If it is an FHA mortgage, a partial claim is possible. If you are over 62 and have equity, you may want to research a reverse mortgage.

For more information, visit the Oakland County Community & Home Improvement Web site at www.oakgov.com/chi.