Fannie Mae Home Counselor Online(TM) Launches Tools in Spanish
2004年6月11日 - 3:03AM
PRニュース・ワイアー (英語)
Fannie Mae Home Counselor Online(TM) Launches Tools in Spanish Free
Web-Based Technology Tool Helps Housing Counseling Agencies and
Their Partners Increase Capacity to Help Hispanic Borrowers Achieve
Homeownership and Help Boost the U.S. Hispanic Homeownership Rate
WASHINGTON, June 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Fannie Mae, the nation's
largest source of financing for home mortgages, today launched Home
Counselor Online(TM) tools in Spanish to help expand homeownership
among Hispanics, who have previously been underserved by the
housing finance system. The free, web-based technology tool, which
will be showcased at this year's National Council for La Raza
conference in Phoenix, Arizona, will help counseling agencies,
non-profit groups and other entities guide potential homeowners
through the mortgage process via user-friendly counseling support
functions. Home Counselor Online also allows lenders to track
progress of potential borrowers on the path to homeownership. Home
Counselor Online is part of Fannie Mae's efforts to help housing
partners modernize or transform housing counseling practices, in
addition to moving the minority homeownership rate. With the launch
of its English version on November 2001, more than 1,157 counseling
agencies and lender offices have set up this technology tool, with
over 103,221 clients served by them. The introduction of Home
Counselor Online with tools in Spanish is part of Fannie Mae's
expansion of the American Dream Commitment(R); a pledge to help
over 6 million families, including 1.8 million minority families,
become homeowners. This affordable housing plan will expand access
to homeownership for millions of first-time home buyers; help raise
the minority homeownership rate to at least 55 percent; make
homeownership and rental housing a success for millions of families
at risk of losing their homes; and expand the supply of affordable
housing where it is needed most over the next decade. The company's
ultimate goal is to eliminate differences in minority and non-
minority homeownership rates. Home Counselor Online's tools in
Spanish will help counseling agencies, non-profit groups, and other
entities that provide home buyer counseling services and have
bilingual representatives increase their efficiency with the
automation of counseling tasks and processes. The agencies may
establish mutually beneficial relationships with lenders, who can
refer borrowers who are not quite ready for homeownership to
counseling services. Lenders also may benefit by receiving
referrals of ready, qualified borrowers from counseling agencies.
"I have found Home Counselor Online to be a great organizational
case management tool for tracking where my clients are in the home
buying process, their goals, and accomplishments," said Laura
Hagen, a housing specialist with County Corp, the first housing and
economic development nonprofit in Ohio. "Home Counselor Online's
easily managed summary reports can be tailored for distribution to
clients, the case file, or for general reporting. It has kept me
organized, and my clients and I know where we have been and where
we're going." Some of the features of Home Counselor Online include
the ability to do the following: * View cases, appointments, and
reminders all from a personal home page; * Quickly determine a
client's financial readiness for homeownership using the
Affordability Analyzer; * Assess a borrower's eligibility for a
variety of loan products, including low- and no-down payment
mortgage loans; * Pull credit report data automatically into client
files; and * Develop "Homeownership Action Plans" to identify and
overcome any potential barriers to homeownership. The technology
also highlights tools to assist Spanish-speaking families, and will
aid in creating direct electronic links between counselors and
lenders to ensure the smooth transition from counseling to an
affordable mortgage. For more information on Home Counselor Online
or to register, call 1-800- 7FANNIE (1-800-732-6643) Monday through
Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. ET, or visit
http://www.efanniemae.com/homecounselor. Fannie Mae is a New York
Stock Exchange company and the largest non-bank financial services
company in the world. It operates pursuant to a federal charter and
is the nation's largest source of financing for home mortgages.
Fannie Mae is working to shrink the nation's "homeownership gaps"
through a $2 trillion "American Dream Commitment" to increase
homeownership rates and serve 18 million targeted American families
by the end of the decade. Since 1968, Fannie Mae has provided $5.9
trillion of mortgage financing for 60 million families. More
information about Fannie Mae can be found on the Internet at
http://www.fanniemae.com/. American Dream Commitment(R) is a
registered Fannie Mae. Unauthorized use of this mark is prohibited.
Home Counselor Online(TM) is a trade mark of Fannie Mae.
Unauthorized use of this mark is prohibited. Style Usage: Fannie
Mae's Board of Directors has authorized the company to operate as
"Fannie Mae," and the company's stock is now listed on the NYSE as
"FNM." In order to facilitate clarity and avoid confusion, news
organizations are asked to refer to the company exclusively as
"Fannie Mae." DATASOURCE: Fannie Mae CONTACT: Spanish: Cristina
Miranda, +1-202-752-5603, or English: Jon Searles, +1-202-752-2581,
both of Fannie Mae Web site: http://www.fanniemae.com/
http://www.efanniemae.com/homecounselor Company News On-Call:
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