Indiana Offering Free Foreclosure Counseling For Homeowners in Financial Trouble

The Midwest has been mired in a mini recession as manufacturing jobs are leaving the region in droves. Home prices have remained stagnant for a number of years and many homeowners face foreclosure on a regular basis. The state of Indiana has come up with a new program for homeowners that are worried about foreclosure.

Indiana’s new program, “Don’t Let the Walls Foreclose in on You.” is designed to give information to families facing foreclosure and offer free counseling to them before they lose their house. Many times people get into a state of denial when foreclosures loom instead of taking the steps to work things out with the lender. Options that could have saved the house are left on the table and the homeowner loses the property when all participants would have preferred to work something out.

To help financially troubled homeowners, brochures and posters are being distributed urging Hoosiers to call the state’s help line — 877-GET-HOPE — for free mortgage foreclosure counseling, or to visit its Web site, www.877gethope.org.
So many Hoosiers’ American dream of owning a home has become a nightmare that a legislative panel was assigned to study the issue last summer. That panel has now reached consensus on dozens of recommendations to help homeowners that will be detailed in a new report.
The work by the Interim Study Committee on Mortgage Lending Practices and Home Loan Foreclosures was aimed at helping Indiana residents avoid making mistakes when they borrow money to buy a home. via IndyStar.com.

If this program works out it will be interesting to see if it is replicated by other states. The investment in programs like this make sense for the state as property taxes decrease along with property values the more foreclosure occur in an area.