Tips For Avoiding Home Foreclosure

(CBS)  Wall Street is worried about the slump in the housing market, especially foreclosures. In the second quarter of 2007, according to Equifax/Moody's Economy.com., foreclosures in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., shot up 335 percent. In Flint, Mich., they were up 986 percent, and in Visalia, Calif., home foreclosures were up 1,587 percent.

There are ways to avoid losing your home, as CBS News correspondent Hari Sreenivasan explains in our special series, "Real Estate, Real Solutions."

This time last year, Donna Young was searching for answers. The mother of four was going through a divorce, was nearly $4,000 behind on her mortgage and was close to losing her suburban Atlanta home.

"I started feeling depressed, very stressed, needless to say, because I felt like everything that I had worked so hard for and to gain was falling apart," she says.

Young was smart enough to ask for help from The Impact Group, a non-profit organization that put her through a financial education class, got her on a budget and convinced her lender to excuse her delinquency by allowing her to pay an extra $300 each month to catch up.

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Sreenivasan Blogs: When The American Dream Becomes A Nightmare

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With the forecast on foreclosures grim, housing advocates and lenders have launched an ad campaign to persuade homeowners to seek help before its too late.

That's because foreclosure impacts everyone. A recent congressional report found that the between the homeowner, lender, neighboring property value and loss to local government, the average foreclosure costs $80,000. Preventing foreclosure is much less, at $3,300.

Those heavy losses have taken a toll in Arlington, Texas, where city leaders are now putting foreclosure prevention information in with the city's water bills.

"The best time to act is before you even miss that first payment," says Mindy Cochran of the city of Arlington.

According to lender Freddie Mac, nearly half the people who have their homes foreclosed never have a conversation with their lender.

Public service announcements are encouraging homeowners to get help. "Every year, 1 million families face losing their homes to foreclosure," warns one announcement.

Here's some helpful information to avoid foreclosure:

• To avoid scams, visit HUD.gov to make sure your credit counselor is an approved agency.
  
• Communicate with your lender as soon as you know you'll miss payments or be late.
  
• Negotiate repayment plans. You may be allowed to delay payments or add past due amounts to the balance of your mortgage and extend it over a longer period of time.
  

And the advice from Donna Young? "Just hang in there."

She did — and still has her home to prove it.

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If you're trying to sell a home in this buyer's market, you may be considering skipping the broker. Tomorrow, in the final part of our series, we'll look at the pros and cons of going it alone.

[temmeli]

I'm glad they fixed the link. The Impact Group USA is a great company and good people. They have an office in Mableton, GA as well as Pine Mountain now.

[obynx]

jet ranger I know someone in China that can do a cheap web site

[jetranger7]

I Think its time we Americans hold a "National Boycott Month" and for an entire Month Quit buying anything made in CHINA or Mexico ! Lets get this started with the Christmas season just around the corner, this would be a perfect time to start the movement ! I say the entire month of November Boycott anything from China and Mexico ! Now if someone with some savy computer skills would help get this movement going and post it everywhere it would help, maybe start a web site for it too !!!!

[lemusique-2009]

The name of the company is The Impact Group USA. They are in Pine Mountain, GA - the link is wrong.

Is there another organization in GA that does similiar things??

That link goes somewhere completely different. The website is theimpactgroupusa.com

[leopoldthelm]

The annual cost of owning a home or condo is usually greater than the cost renting.

A home takes all or most of your earnings!!!

You are absolutely right. The answer to your question is that we have met the enemy and the enemy is us.

As long as people in these United State continue to buy foreign goods, nothing will ever change until we are bankrupt.

Every day I hear others tell me how the Japanese car is so much superior to GM & Ford. It's really not true but as long as the public believes the lies put out by propaganda machines like Consumers Report and Motor Trend and the media and other people's misconceptions, nothing will change until we are bankrupt.

The American people are deceived by what President Lincoln called "the intoxication of unbroken successes". No one believes that the country will become bankrupt until it happens, and when it happens then they will ask "Why did this happen?" The truth is that they made it happen.

[jetranger7]

Why isn't someone Speaking out about the real issues as to why this is really Happening ???? With in the last 10 to 12 Years we in this country have seen many, many of our Good Manufacturing Jobs, and sectors of the Employment go else where, Our Jobs have been "Outsourced", forced to move overseas, shipped to Mexico, China,Indonisia, and other 3rd world countries, putting many of us out of Work. Many of us are now working for lower Wages than we were say 8 to 10 Years ago, meanwhile, everything else has increased, the cost of living etc. Has anyone priced a Gallon of Milk lately ??? its like $4.00 dollars a gallon. If "Nafta" & "GATT" &"WTO" were supposed to be so effective, than why isn't it working??? Were all gonna lose our homes and businesses if this keeps up !! Than what ??? Quit buying products from China and Mexico for starters !