http://www.latimes.com/business/la-f...tory?track=rss
Federal foreclosure prevention program is struggling
Under the main Obama administration program to ease foreclosures, fewer than 37,000 homeowners received permanently lowered mortgage payments in July. Modification cancellations are up.
By Jim Puzzanghera, Los Angeles Times
August 21, 2010
Reporting from Washington — Just as the housing market recovery has stalled, so has the Obama administration's main program to ease home foreclosures.
Only 36,695 homeowners received permanently lowered mortgage payments in July through the much-criticized Home Affordable Modification Program, the smallest increase since December, administration officials said Friday.
And the number of people dropping out of the program continued to soar. Overall, nearly half the homeowners who entered the program since it launched in March of last year have dropped out.
Many had hoped the $75-billion program would be a silver bullet to the foreclosure problem, but it's turned out to be a dud, said independent banking analyst Bert Ely. That's not surprising, he said, given the depth of the housing market crash and recession, combined with a slow recovery....