Centre for Homeownership & Economic Development Offers Mortgage Payment Help for Unemployed Workers

WASHINGTON, D.C. – April 16, 2013 – (RealEstateRama) — Unemployed workers and others facing temporary financial hardships in our area have a new avenue to seek mortgage help while they get back on their feet.

The Centre for Homeownership & Economic Development Corp. in Hillsborough, NC, has joined 40 counseling organizations statewide in offering the N.C. Foreclosure Prevention Fund, a mortgage assistance program offered through the N.C. Housing Finance Agency using funds from U.S. Treasury. The Centre serves Alamance, Caswell, Chatham, Durham, Franklin, Granville, Guilford, Orange, Person and Wake counties. [EDITOR: Find other local agencies at http://www.ncforeclosureprevention.gov/map_contact_counselor.aspx]

The N.C. Foreclosure Prevention Fund has already helped more than 11,000 families by making mortgage payments for unemployed workers while they seek jobs or complete job training in a new field. Others who are at risk of falling behind on their payments because of divorce, serious illness or certain other temporary setbacks, may also be eligible for assistance while they they look for work.

Homeowners must have a good mortgage payment history prior to the job loss or hardship and demonstrate an ability to resume their mortgage payments once the assistance ends.

“The goal is to help responsible North Carolina homeowners keep their homes and to support the state’s economic recovery by protecting property values and the local tax base,” said A. Robert Kucab, executive director of the N.C. Housing Finance Agency, the self-supporting state agency that designed and manages the effort.

The assistance is provided as a zero-interest, deferred loan of up to $36,000 or 36 months. Homeowners will resume making their own mortgage payments at the end of the loan period. If the owner continues to live in the home for 10 years, the loan will be considered satisfied and no repayment will be due.

Homeowners do not need to be behind on payments to seek help. For more information about their eligibility, consumers can call the information line, 1-888-623-8631 or go to www.NCForeclosurePrevention.gov. To contact the Centre for Homeownership & Economic Development, call 919-241-4718 or go to www.homeownershipcentreed.org.

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The N.C. Housing Finance Agency is a self-supporting public agency. It has financed nearly 215,000 affordable homes and apartments statewide. It offers the N.C. Foreclosure Prevention Fund with funding from the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Hardest Hit Fund®.

Press Contact Only:
Margaret Matrone, NCHFA, 919-877-5606,
Connie Helmlinger, NCHFA, 919-877-5607
Consumer Contact: 1-888-623-8631