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Homeownership Education and Outreach

Recognizing that educated homebuyers are more likely to be successful over the long-term, Freddie Mac–often in collaboration with other organizations–has developed a variety of initiatives and tools to help lenders and housing professionals reach consumers where they live, work, play, and pray. These education and outreach initiatives are being used across the country to prepare borrowers for homeownership, protect consumers from financial traps, and preserve successful homeownership.

Making Home Affordable

Freddie Mac is proud to play a key role in sustaining homeownership by supporting President Obama's Making Home Affordable Program. At this critical time for the market and homeowners, our support of this program reinforces our long-standing commitment to help at-risk borrowers with Freddie Mac-owned mortgages avoid foreclosure. Our support of Making Home Affordable includes media outreach, foreclosure prevention workshops for homeowners, industry training, educating through our existing initiatives, and more.

CreditSmart®

CreditSmart is an award-winning credit and financial education curriculum designed to help consumers build and maintain better credit, make sound financial decisions, and understand the steps to sustainable homeownership. We encourage housing professionals to join us in preparing borrowers across the country for successful homeownership by utilizing the CreditSmart curriculum and its supporting workshop materials. In addition to English, CreditSmart is offered in Spanish (CreditSmart Español), plus Korean, Chinese, and Vietnamese (CreditSmart Asian).

Don't Borrow Trouble®

Don't Borrow Trouble is a national anti-predatory lending and foreclosure avoidance campaign that combines education and empowerment–teaching consumers to protect their homes and finances. Campaign coalitions teach consumers to recognize and avoid predatory and abusive lending practices, and help homeowners avoid foreclosure. Don't Borrow Trouble was pioneered in Boston by Mayor Thomas M. Menino and the Massachusetts Community & Banking Council. Since 2000, Freddie Mac has been expanding the campaign nationwide. The campaign has reached more than 350,000 consumers through 50 local campaigns in 31 states and the District of Columbia. We invite individuals interested in learning more about Don't Borrow Trouble, and organizations interested in joining our campaign, to visit DontBorrowTrouble.com.

Community Stabilization

Freddie Mac wholly supports efforts to sustain homeownership and stabilize communities. Through our Community Stabilization initiative, we collaborate with lenders, state and local governments, housing professionals, and employers in municipalities across the U.S. to mitigate the negative effects of foreclosure and property abandonment on neighborhoods. The Community Stabilization initiative leverages two federal programs – the Neighborhood Stabilization Program and the Making Home Affordable Program – to stem the tide of foreclosures and help communities bring new homeowners into neighborhoods.

Workforce Home Benefit^SM

Workforce Home Benefit can be a vital instrument to increase employee retention and enhance recruiting and hiring capabilities. This initiative provides organizations with a powerful tool to help their employees become homeowners. It also provides employers and participating lenders with the information required to efficiently implement an employer-assisted homeownership plan within their organizations. Specifically, this tool offers suggestions on the types of benefits they can offer their employees from homebuyer education to down payment assistance and matched savings accounts.

Loan Prospector® Outreach

Loan Prospector Outreach is an online client assessment tool for housing counselors. It enables housing counselors to use the power of Freddie Mac's automated underwriting technology to objectively assess whether their clients are ready to apply for a mortgage. Loan Prospector Outreach gives housing counselors an efficient way to conduct a reliable client assessment, offers information to shape pre-purchase counseling, and facilitates a client's transition to a lender to begin the home purchase process.

Mi Casa Propia

Mi Casa Propia is a bilingual mortgage guide for first-time homebuyers whose primary language is Spanish. Freddie Mac created this educational tool to assist lenders in their effort to guide borrowers through the mortgage experience, including explanations about the process, paperwork, and the many professionals involved in every phase of the homebuying process. Mi Casa Propia includes seven sections that take the consumer from application to closing, and into the first few months of homeownership.

Nuestro Barrio

Engaging storylines meet meaningful messages in Nuestro Barrio (Our Neighborhood), a Spanish-language educational drama about life in the U.S. The 13-episode Nuestro Barrio follows the very popular telenovela, or soap opera format, using storylines of romance, jealousy and conflict to engage viewers while subtly introducing them to valuable lessons on banking, credit, homeownership and more. Freddie Mac supported the production ofNuestro Barrio and provides select lenders with the opportunity to distribute Nuestro Barrio DVDs, which include a photonovela recap of the characters, themes, and lessons learned.

For more information, please contact Corporate Relations & Housing Outreach Manager Julie Sun at Julie_Sun@FreddieMac.com or 703-903-3209.