Over the past 12 months, the Iowa Mortgage Help Hotline has handled thousands of calls from Iowans in danger of losing their homes to foreclosure and has assisted hundreds of residents in modifying their loans, Attorney General Tom Miller said this morning. Thanks to additional funding received in late 2008, the program will continue to be available to Iowans through 2009, Miller said.

The Iowa attorney general’s office and the Iowa Finance Authority established the hotline in February 2008, using a $1.5 million federal grant. In its first year, the program has received an estimated 5,500 calls from homeowners in all 99 counties, and received more than 3,700 applications. Other partners in the program include Iowa Mediation Service, the Iowa Home Ownership Education Project, Iowa Legal Aid and credit counseling agencies throughout the state.

In December, the hotline program received an additional $766,925 through a grant and in-kind funding from the National Foreclosure Mitigation Counseling Program.

As of the end of the third quarter of 2008, the percentage of Iowa subprime loans entering foreclosure increased 9 percent compared with the same period a year earlier, which was less than expected given the avalanche of foreclosures nationwide, Miller said in a press release. Nationally, the percentage of foreclosures on subprime loans increased by 33 percent for the same period.

“The hotline deserves some of the credit for Iowa doing better than the national average,” Miller said. About half the cases that have been reported to the hotline so far are still in progress, he said, while one-fourth of the cases have had a positive result. Only about 6 percent of the cases handled have ended in foreclosure, he said.

Whenever possible, the program works to negotiate loan modifications for borrowers, and about 20 percent of cases have resulted in loan modifications, Miller said. The program will also work with residents to help implement the federal foreclosure prevention program announced last week by President Barack Obama. That initiative set a national standard for modifications so that payments will total no more than 31 percent of a borrower’s income.

The toll-free number for Iowa Mortgage Help is (877) 622-4866. Additional information is available at www.iowamortgagehelp.com.