Keep Your Home California adds 12 mortgage servicers

There are now 20 mortgage servicers that participate in the Keep Your Home California program, enacted in February. The California Housing Finance Agency said Tuesday the number of servicers engaged in this program grew to 20 from eight four months ago. These 20 banks service about 80% of the mortgages held in California, the agency said. “Increasing the number of participating servicers is critical because we need their partnership to assist families in California,” said Claudia Cappio, executive director of CalHFA. “We are pleased that more servicers are joining this effort and encourage others to partner with us to aid families who would like to remain in their homes.” Keep Your Home California is a nearly $2 billion endeavor funded by the U.S. Treasury’s Hardest Hit Fund. There are four different foreclosure prevention programs under the Keep Your Home California umbrella, and every registered mortgage servicer participates in at least program. The Principal Reduction Program participants include the California Department of Veterans Affairs, CalHFA, Community Trust Credit Union, GMAC, Guild Mortgage Co., Saxon Mortgage Servicing and Vericrest Financial. Ally Financial (GJM), the parent company for GMAC, recently extended mortgage assistance to all 19 states receiving Hardest Hit Funds and even began reducing principal balances in Michigan. All 20 servicers are registered to help homeowners stay current on mortgage payments, under the Unemployment Mortgage Assistance program, designed to give unemployed homeowners up to $3,000 a month or 100% of the existing total monthly mortgage payment. Every servicer except Bank of America (BAC) is participating in the Mortgage Reinstatement Assistance program. This program is intended to help homeowners who have defaulted on their mortgage payment due to a temporary change in household circumstance, such as death or serious illness. The Cali Housing Finance Agency will fund up to $15,000 per household under this program. For a full list of mortgage servicers and which programs they will fund, check out the CalHFA website here. Write to Christine Ricciardi. Follow her on Twitter @HWnewbieCR.