If you are a homeowner with a subprime mortgage, chances are, you could use a little hope, right about now.

Well, a program that just happens to be called HopeNow is putting the kind of hope you need on the fast track. Refinanced mortgages with fixed rates are available from the HopeNow program for qualified homeowners struggling with subprime mortgages.

Since it was created last year, HopeNow has taken applications from 45,000 subprime borrowers looking for some quick relief from mortgages they can't handle.

Along with easier-to-manage mortgages, homeowners who refinance under the HopeNow program also get counseling to make sure they hold onto their new refinanced mortgage -- and their home.

The program has the blessings of both the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Affairs. The outreach program contacts subprime borrowers before they get into trouble and offers the help they need to remain homeowners.

HopeNow is the work of mortgage servicers who represent 90 percent of the subprime market. The subprime mortgage market includes 2 million subprime mortgage holders who have mortgages that could reset to higher rates in the next two years, according to the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

The HopeNow program's fast track effort is speeding early applicants through the refinance process to free up time for mortgage servicers to focus on the more difficult cases, according to the Treasury Department.

The ultimate goal is to prevent as many foreclosures as possible.

For more information, visit the HopeNow.com website or call 1-888-995-HOPE (4673).

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said Hope Now's effort to fast-track qualified borrowers into new, affordable loans "will be measured by the number of avoidable foreclosures that are prevented, not by the number of refinancings or modifications with an interest rate freeze."

The federal government/mortgage servicers alliance includes the American Bankers Association; American Financial Services Association; American Securitization Forum; America’s Community Bankers; Assurant, Inc.; Bank of America (which plans to purchase home loan lender Countrywide Financial); CCCS Atlanta, Inc.; Carrington Mortgage Services; Citigroup Inc.; Consumer Bankers Association; Consumer Mortgage Coalition; EMC Mortgage, Inc.; Fannie Mae; The Financial Services Roundtable; First Horizon National Corporation; First Tennessee Home Loans; Freddie Mac: GMAC ResCap; Homeownership Preservation Foundation; Housing Partnership Network; The Housing Policy Council; HSBC Finance; Indymac Bank; JPMorgan Chase & Co; Litton Loan Servicing; Merrill Lynch; Home Loan Services/Wilshire; Morgan Stanley/Saxon; Mortgage Bankers Association; National City; NeighborWorks America; Ocwen Loan Servicing; Option One Mortgage Corporation; PMI Mortgage Insurance Co.; Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association; State Farm Insurance Companies; SunTrust Mortgage, Inc.; Washington Mutual, Inc.; and Wells Fargo & Company, among others.

Published: January 15, 2008

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Broderick Perkins parlayed a career in old-school journalism into a contemporary digital news service that really hits home. The award-winning consumer journalist, originally from Wilmington, DE, is founder, publisher and executive editor of the bootstrap DeadlineNews Group, a Silicon Valley-based editorial content and consulting service specializing in residential real estate, consumer news and related editorial consulting services. The DeadlineNews Group includes the website, DeadlineNews.com, offering real estate editorial content and consulting services, and its back shop, the Deadline Newsroom, an open house on news that really hits home. Perkins obtained his formal journalism education from University of Delaware and a journalism boot camp, the Institute of Journalism Education at the University of California-Berkeley. He went on to 20 years of service as a daily newspaper journalist at the Wilmington, DE News Journal and San Jose, CA Mercury News. Perkins covered housing on the San Jose Mercury News reporting team which earned a General News Reporting Pulitzer Prize in 1989 for coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake. He has also produced real estate, consumer and small business content for the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, RealtyTimes.com, Nolo.com, Better Homes and Gardens, the National Association of Realtors, Homestore/Move and Intuit/Quicken among more than three dozen publications. In addition to managing the DeadlineNews Group, Perkins most recently served as chief editorial consultant for Nolo's Essential Guide To Buying Your First Home, Nolo, and writes real estate television scripts for RealtyTimes.com.