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76 "Both Ocwen and the NAACP are committed to helping borrowers have every opportunity to remain in their homes," com- mented Jill Showell, Senior Vice President of Government and Community Relations at Ocwen. "Co-hosting these events with the NAACP, a trusted resource in the community, adds tremendous value and ensures higher participation rates. e numbers speak for themselves." "It is important to recognize that while some have recovered from the housing crisis, many families, especially in low-income communities, are still struggling to keep their homes." Since 2008, Ocwen has completed more than 520,000 loan modifications. Many of those modifications included a principal re- duction for underwater borrowers or borrowers facing foreclosure. For example, HOPE NOW, a non-profit alliance between counselors, mortgage compa- nies, investors, regulators and other mortgage market participants that facilitates foreclosure prevention solutions, has conducted borrower outreach events in seven cities this year— Oakland, San Bernardino, Chicago, St. Louis, Cleveland, Milwaukee, and La Mirada (in the Los Angeles area), with an event schedule for Fort Lauderdale on November 19 and Queens, New York, in December. In Fort Lauderdale, HOPE NOW is partnering with the Urban League of Broward County; in Queens, they are partnering with the Center for New York City Neighborhoods. "On the local level, government partners are focused on issues including abandoned properties, affordable housing and neighbor- hood stability," HOPE NOW Executive Director Eric Selk said. "Two more roundtables are scheduled for South Florida in November and New York City in December. At face-to-face consumer events so far this year, HOPE NOW servicers are seeing a significant number of delinquent or imminent default customers—65 percent of attendees—as well as a large number of first time loan mod applicants, 38 percent of attend- ees. Of these homeowners, at least 45 percent are reviewed for HAMP mods and 12 percent are reviewed for proprietary programs." A total of 1,636 homeowners have attended the seven HOPE NOW outreach events in 2015. e largest one was in La Mirada, which featured 319 attendees. HOPE NOW has scaled down its events from serving 1,000 attendees to between 300 and 400. An average of about 10 to 12 servicers and 12 to 15 housing counselors attend each event despite a drastic decline in serious delinquencies from their peak five years ago (from four million down to about 1.65 million). Also, the breadth of government and private solutions available has increased; therefore homeowners tend to spend a longer time one on one with their servicer. According to HOPE NOW, about 20 percent of attendees make same-day decisions about their homes, mostly because servicers need to collect the packages in their entirety before they are submitted to underwriting. ose who do not make same-day decisions, however, often leave with clear and concise next steps along with a single point of contact and a checklist. Massachusetts RANK: 18 90+ Day Foreclosure Unemployment Delinquency Rate Rate Rate AUGUST 2015 2.00% 1.72% 4.7 YEAR AGO 3.42% 1.47% 5.6 YEAR-OVER-YEAR CHANGE -41.4% 16.5% -0.9 Top County BERKSHIRE COUNTY 90+ Day Foreclosure Delinquency Rate Rate AUGUST 2015 3.55% 3.43% YEAR AGO 5.07% 2.62% YEAR-OVER-YEAR CHANGE -30.0% 30.7% Top Core-Based Statistical Area PITTSFIELD, MA 90+ Day Foreclosure Delinquency Rate Rate AUGUST 2015 3.55% 3.43% YEAR AGO 5.07% 2.62% YEAR-OVER-YEAR CHANGE -30.0% 30.7% note: The 90+ day delinquecy rate is the percentage of outstanding mortgage loans that are seriously delinquent. The foreclosure rate is the percentage of outstanding mortgage loans currently in foreclosure. State rank is based on the August 2015 foreclosure rate. All figures are rounded to the nearest decimal. The unemployment rate reflects preliminary August 2015 figures released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. All other data courtesy of LPS Data & Analytics. New Hampshire RANK: 36 90+ Day Foreclosure Unemployment Delinquency Rate Rate Rate AUGUST 2015 1.31% 0.89% 3.6 YEAR AGO 1.93% 1.08% 4.2 YEAR-OVER-YEAR CHANGE -32.2% -18.2% -0.6 Top County SULLIVAN COUNTY 90+ Day Foreclosure Delinquency Rate Rate AUGUST 2015 2.60% 1.89% YEAR AGO 2.73% 2.01% YEAR-OVER-YEAR CHANGE -4.7% -5.9% Top Core-Based Statistical Area BERLIN, NH-VT 90+ Day Foreclosure Delinquency Rate Rate AUGUST 2015 2.19% 1.84% YEAR AGO 2.87% 1.93% YEAR-OVER-YEAR CHANGE -23.5% -4.9% note: The 90+ day delinquecy rate is the percentage of outstanding mortgage loans that are seriously delinquent. The foreclosure rate is the percentage of outstanding mortgage loans currently in foreclosure. State rank is based on the August 2015 foreclosure rate. All figures are rounded to the nearest decimal. The unemployment rate reflects preliminary August 2015 figures released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. All other data courtesy of LPS Data & Analytics. Maryland had the highest distressed sales share of any state in August 2015 with 20.8 percent, a half percentage point ahead of second-place Florida (20.3 percent); the Baltimore metro area and the fourth-highest distressed sales share of any metro with 21.2 percent, behind only Orlando, Tampa, and Miami, according to CoreLogic. KNOW THIS New Hampshire's foreclosure inventory rate for the month of September 2015, which was well below the national average of 1.2 percent for the month. New Hampshire's serious delinquency rate (2.4 percent) in September was also well below the national average of 3.4 percent. Source: CoreLogic STAT INSIGHT 0.7%