Fannie Mae Launches "Las Opciones de los Casas" to Educate and Empower Homeowners

Teleseries for Spanish-Speaking Community Shows Options to Avoid Foreclosure

Amy Bonitatibus

202-752-4144

WASHINGTON, DC — Fannie Mae (FNMA/OTC) today launched "Las Opciones de los Casas," a teleseries for the Spanish-speaking community designed to educate homeowners about their options to avoid foreclosure, empower them to make informed decisions and motivate them to take action and seek help. Through a partnership with Univision, the teleseries debuted as a television broadcast in Miami on March 28, coinciding with the one-year anniversary of Fannie Mae's South Florida Mortgage Help Center. Las Opciones de Los Casas, part of the Company's "Know Your Options™" initiative to help struggling homeowners, is now available on www.conozcasusopciones.com.

"The Latino community has been disproportionately affected by the housing crisis, and at Fannie Mae we are committed to helping all families stay in their homes and avoid foreclosure," said Jeff Hayward, Senior Vice President, National Servicing Organization, Fannie Mae. "Las Opciones de los Casas is a powerful tool to help Spanish-speakers understand their options to avoid foreclosure and to make them familiar with the different outcomes of these options, whether it's staying in their homes or finding the right housing somewhere else."

Modeled on a telenovela, Las Opciones de los Casas portrays a family and their closest friends as they navigate financial hardships in a number of scenarios in their neighborhood. The series gives a realistic view of a range of options for avoiding foreclosure, including repayment plans, modifications and short sales. Las Opciones de Los Casas also warns homeowners to protect themselves against scams, showing them that mortgage help should always be free.

Through the teleseries, viewers will:

• Witness a story line in which a family and their friends try to find the best way to avoid foreclosure.
• Familiarize themselves with the different options to avoid foreclosure.
• Identify with the characters and their obstacles while following the story.
• Discover and learn the positive outcomes or negative consequences of the choices made by the characters (i.e., talking to your bank instead of paying a scam artist to resolve the situation).

"Many homeowners lose their homes simply because they don't understand that there is an alternative," added Jeff Hayward. "The better homeowners understand that they have options, the more likely they are to take action and make proactive decisions — and the better their chance of finding a solution that allows them to avoid foreclosure."

Through foreclosure prevention programs, borrower outreach, underwriting guidelines and servicer engagement, Fannie Mae is taking a comprehensive approach to helping struggling homeowners. In addition to websites and series like KnowYourOptions.com and Las Opciones de Los Casas, Fannie Mae seeks to address the nation's housing crisis by opening Mortgage Help Centers in hard-hit communities such as Miami, Chicago and Atlanta, reaching out to homeowners directly to encourage them to pursue foreclosure alternatives, organizing foreclosure prevention events across the country and providing support and assistance to nonprofit organizations at the forefront of homeowner education efforts. Since the start of 2009, Fannie Mae's efforts have helped more than a half a million families stay in their homes.