Home Affordable Modification Program

Janet's a lawyer who's losing her home, and she knows: When it comes to foreclosure, bureaucracy and paperwork can be your friends. Her foreclosure process has lasted for nearly 900 days, and counting. For homeowners in dire financial straits, her story is a lesson in how to keep a roof over your head as long as possible.

In the last few years, outreach events by banks and nonprofits have been held all over the country, offering help to distressed homeowners. But even when they get personal invitations to these events, the vast majority of people who need mortgage modifications or short sales aren't showing up.

Financial advice columnist Laura Rowley recently received an email from a homeowner who had negotiated a successful mortgage modification, but may end up as a short-sale candidate anyway -- because she can't finance home repairs. Her options are limited, but possible solutions do exist.

Investors have generally taken a negative position on big banks lately: Major financial institutions face a host of issues that are punishing their bottom lines. However, some of Wall Street's most carefully watched investors -- short sellers -- are withdrawing their bets against them.

Many troubled homeowners in the federal foreclosure relief program end up losing their property anyway. Banks gain the most by delaying repossessing houses they can't sell, while collecting monthly payments from strapped borrowers.

Fewer Americans received home-loan modifications under the Obama administration's program to reduce foreclosures and delinquencies. More owners with modifications flunked out.

The Obama Administration's Home Affordable Modification Program continues to show mixed results, increasing the overall number of permanent mortgage modifications but rejecting over a third of those receiving trial modifications.

With nearly 25% of all mortgage holders in the U.S. underwater – meaning they owe more on their house than it's currently worth – it's no wonder that a new part of the Home Affordable Modification Program (or HAMP) taking effect April 5 is garnering big ink, including a page one story...

Add to home loan modification woes the latest missive from the federal government: serious delinquencies reached 6.2% in the third quarter, up nearly 17% from the previous quarter. The release begins to add some context to earlier complaints that few of the temporary modifications under the...

The Obama administration's stimulus program has given incentives to mortgage lenders and homeowners under water to modify their loans, rather than foreclose. The effort has had some success, but a new study suggests that these modifications are just delaying the inevitable for many. More than half...