An Analysis of Mortgage Default Clientsand Mortgage Default Counseling

The purposes of the study were to create a profile of the mortgage default clientele and to examine how clientele were utilizing the counseling services at a housing counseling center. Aspects considered were loan type, time of delinquency when clients sought counseling, referrals of clients, and the point in counseling when an outcome was achieved (keeping the home or losing the home to foreclosure). Descriptive statistics were used to create a profile of clients, and Kaplan-Meier survival analysis was used to examine the utilization of services. In the con- text of survival analysis, clients were divided into three groups: survival (kept the home), foreclosure/bankruptcy (lost the home), and lost-to-follow up. Findings indicate that the role of the housing counselor might evolve ac- cording to the outcome of the default as well as the type of loan