The U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) yesterday launched a new website for distressed homeowners seeking information about the Obama Administration’s Making Home Affordable loan modification and refinancing program.

MakingHomeAffordable.gov offers features including interactive self-assessment tools that seek to empower homeowners to determine if they’re eligible to participate and calculate the monthly mortgage payment reductions they could stand to realize under the Making Home Affordable program. Additional site features include:

• Extensive information about the Administration’s Making Home Affordable plan
• A calculator feature that allows homeowners to estimate the reduction to their monthly mortgage payment that they might stand to realize under the plan
• Resources to find free, HUD-approved counseling services for borrowers who have additional questions
• A handy checklist to ensure homeowners collect all the documents they need before calling their servicers

First announced by President Barack Obama in February, Making Home Affordable is said to offer assistance to as many as nine million homeowners making a good-faith effort to make their mortgage payments, while attempting to prevent the destructive impact of the housing crisis on families and communities.

Since releasing the guidelines to enable servicers to begin modifications of eligible mortgages under Making Home Affordable on March 4th, representatives from Treasury, HUD and other members of a broad interagency task force, have conducted detailed briefings and training sessions for mortgage loan servicers and investors, nonprofit housing counselors and nationwide borrower advocacy groups. Through these early and aggressive efforts to arm those interacting directly with borrowers with information, interagency representatives have briefed more than 2,500 participants on the Administration’s plans in the last two weeks.

A wide array of large banks to small lenders have already agreed to participate in Making Home Affordable, and servicers have undertaken steps to proactively engage borrowers and respond to their inquiries related to the new program. For example, JP Morgan Chase has put several special tools into place and initiated proactive solicitations to eligible borrowers around the Making Home Affordable program, including an online site to provide program details and allow borrowers to download a new financial information package; increased staffing in a dedicated service center that provides simple entry point for all borrowers, including CHASE, heritage Washington Mutual and EMC; a partnership with Fannie Mae to solicit over 125,000 eligible borrowers; and solicitation to an additional 180,000 non-GSE eligible borrowers.

Ralph R. Roberts, GRI, CRS Award-Winning REALTOR® and Author Loan Modification For Dummies (avail. Summer 2009)