Follow NeighborWorks Social Media Symposium Live Online!

We would love for you all to join us in Chicago on August 19 for NeighborWorks' symposium, Social Media and Web 2.0: Engaging Community and Achieving Mission. But if you can't attend, you can still participate and follow the discussion live!

Follow us on Twitter
Social media tools like Twitter allow conference participants to join an online dialogue before, during and after the event. We encourage you to try it! Just follow these simple steps:

1. Sign up for Twitter. It just takes a minute.
2. Follow neighborworks
3. You can text your tweets directly from your mobile phone by going to Devices under Settings and adding your mobile phone.
4. Include the hashtag #nti in your tweets.

Even if you don’t sign up for Twitter, you can still follow the dialogue by going to http://search.twitter.com/ and entering #nti. Using this hashtag will bring up the real time tweets related to the social media symposium.

Live blog
NeighborWorks has enlisted a couple of crafty folks to live blog from some of the symposium sessions. For the first time, those who can not attend the symposium will be able to follow the key highlights and discussion from the event. Just check the Social Media Symposium Blog next Wednesday to follow along.

Why Are Loan Modifications Taking So Long?

As pressure increases on servicers to pick up the pace of loan modifications, many are wondering: What’s the problem?

NeighborWorks America, in its report to Congress on the National Foreclosure Mitigation Program, reported that more homeowners are being reached through counseling, but that servicers are taking as long as 45-60 days to do their part.

CNNMoney.com recently took a look at five reasons why the loan modification process is so slow. Michael van Zalingen, director of homeownership services for Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago, a NeighborWorks member organization, weighed in on many servicers’ insistence on using a fax machine.

"It seems your stuff goes into a black hole," Zalingen told CNN. "It's archaic. Given all the problems we've had with lost faxes, it seems unreasonable to use a fax system."

See what else is on CNNMoney.com’s list of the “5 dumb reasons you can't get mortgage help.”

Neighbors Helping Neighbors: A Grassroots Group Seeks Small Gifts to End Local Foreclosures

A grassroots organization in Rock County, Wisconsin, has come up with a novel way to fight foreclosures in the area. The organization, called the John Doe Movement, is asking every Rock County homeowner to donate $10 a month to help tackle skyrocketing foreclosure rates and stabilize home values. The “Rescue America Project,” recently featured in the Janesville Gazette, aims to generate $10 million by the end of 2010. The money would be collected by the Beloit-based Stateline Community Foundation and directed to Neighborhood Housing Services in Beloit, Inc., a NeighborWorks America member organization, to help homeowners facing foreclosure modify the terms of their mortgage.

In Tough Times, Success Measures Expands To Meet Growing Demand for Outcome Measurement

Community development organizations and their funders invest significant resources each year to prepare low- to moderate-income families for sustainable homeownership, to build stronger communities and improve quality of life for community residents.

But how do these organizations know that they are meeting their ultimate goals? How can organizations and their funders be assured that their investments are generating long-term impact?

In these tough economic times it is more important than ever to answer these questions. Because of the weak economy many nonprofits are struggling to survive as foundations and other philanthropic organizations tighten their belts and shrink their investments.

As a result, nonprofits are focusing on core programs and being more strategic about how their dollars are being used. Their funders are demanding more rigorous evaluation methods to determine which programs are making a measurable difference.

Some may argue that this economic downturn has reinforced the importance of measuring the impact of nonprofit programs. And for more than 10 years now, that’s exactly what NeighborWorks America’s Success Measures program has been doing.

Continue reading this feature on how Success Measures is expanding to meet the growing demand for outcome measurement.

NeighborWorks Report Shows Hispanic Homeowners More Likely to Hold ARMs than Fixed Rate Mortgages

Today NeighborWorks America, the administrator of the Congressionally authorized National Foreclosure Mitigation Counseling (NFMC) program, announced that of the more than 363,000 homeowners who received foreclosure prevention counseling as a result of NFMC funding through March 31, 2009, 21 percent were Hispanic homeowners, nearly twice their representation of total homeowners. In all, 53 percent of NFMC Program clients were minority homeowners, or more than twice the overall percentage of minority homeowners.

The data reported today are part of the third NFMC report distributed to Congress in June 2009, and are based on client information provided from more than 1,700 HUD-approved housing counseling intermediaries, state housing finance agencies, and nonprofit housing counseling agencies that received NFMC funding through March 31, 2009. As of June 30, 2009, more than 540,000 homeowners have received foreclosure prevention counseling as a result of NFMC funding.

Nationwide, Hispanic homeowners make up only 11 percent of the nation’s homeowners, according to industry studies. Twenty-four percent of the nation’s homeowners are racial/ethnic minorities, with African American homeowners accounting for 9 percent, and Asian/Pacific Islanders accounting for 4 percent.

Also according to the NeighborWorks America NFMC report, Hispanic clients who sought foreclosure prevention counseling were the only group of homeowners more likely to hold adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs) than fixed rate mortgages. Forty-seven percent of Hispanic NFMC clients held ARMs, and 41 percent held fixed rate mortgages. Nationwide, only 18 percent of outstanding mortgages are ARMs.

All other NFMC clients were more likely to hold fixed rate mortgages than ARMs. Fifty-one percent of African American clients held fixed rate mortgages, and 38 percent held ARMs. Like African American NFMC clients, White NFMC clients were more likely to hold fixed rate mortgages (59 percent) than ARMs (31 percent).

For more information about the NFMC Program, visit www.nw.org/nfmc.