Easing Financial Struggles–A Q1 Update

Just in time for the Mortgage Bankers Association Servicing Conference, and to drive our poor stats guy crazy, we ran the MortgageKeeper Homeowner Needs Status Report for the first half of Q1. This report tells us how much our data is being used, and the top needs of the struggling homeowners using our services.

We were pretty blown away by the numbers.

Requests for help on a daily basis? 2,700. That’s up 25% from last year’s average.

118,235 referral requests have been received. That’s 17% of all referrals received in 2011.

The top 5 referral categories–the types of help who are struggling seem to need most–is virtually unchanged: (1) housing and credit counseling requests, (2) utility assistance, (3) employment help, (4) food assistance, and (5) affordable rental housing.

So perhaps in some areas foreclosures are dropping. Perhaps the consumer confidence levels are improving. But our stats show that those in financial trouble are turning to local help more and more to find the basics like food, housing, work, and counseling.

What do you think of our top referral categories? Any surprises? Let us know.