A federal plan aimed at helping 3 to 4 million homeowners on the verge of foreclosure has fallen far short of expectations, enabling only about 31,000 loan modifications.
"[A]s 2010 begins, it is already clear that Making Home Affordable has fallen far short of its goals, with only 31,382 permanent loan modifications completed by Nov. 30. Last year, lenders were doing far more loan modifications on their own, before the Obama plan was launched. And although foreclosures show no signs of slowing down - the total number of foreclosures is predicted to reach 13 million during the next five years - no one is expecting a dramatic turnaround in helping people keep their homes. The only way the administration will get significant numbers of loan modifications done will be to bring back failed bankruptcy cramdown legislation, or to put billions of dollars into a mass effort to rework loans - neither of which seems politically feasible."
Industry experts attribute the small number of modified loans to procedural and bureaucratic issues, with loan servicers and the federal government pointing fingers at each other over delays.
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