Very little of the 75 billion dollars the banks received from the stimulus package has been used to help borrowers who are in trouble with their mortgages. The government has decided to try to pressure the banks to approve more loan modifications to provide foreclosure relief to borrowers. It’s about time they did something, but is it possibly too little, too late?

Only about 1,700 homeowners have succeeded in getting permanent loan modifications through the program since it began in February. According to the banks, people are not turning in their forms so they cannot process the applications. If I was losing my home, I’m sure I would find time to fill out some paperwork to try to save it. That must be one huge stack of forms.

There are around 375,000 people who should qualify for the loan modifications but over 60%, or 225,000, of them have not turned in their paperwork or have turned in only part of the paperwork. But are the people who did turn in their forms doing any better? It sure doesn’t look like it.

The paperwork is not the only problem, though. Based on some recent figures only about 1. 7% of the people who have turned in their completed paperwork have been approved to receive modified mortgages. Around 50,000 applicants have not been notified whether they are approved or not, so it appears that about 98,300 have been rejected, compared to the 1,700 who were accepted. That seems a little unbalanced.

The government is sending SWAT teams from the Treasury Department to visit lenders next week in an effort to get them to cooperate with the loan modification program. The plan is to embarrass the banks that are not doing their part by publishing a list of the companies for the American public to see. Somehow I don’t see that working.

It looks like the much needed foreclosure relief that was promised by the government is moving slowly. Making the program voluntary was a huge mistake that government officials really should have seen coming. Is it any big surprise that mortgage companies don’t want to reduce the amount of money they are owed and take a smaller profit on those mortgages? Everyone looks out for their own bottom line, and that especially includes mortgage companies.

To learn more information about loan modification services contact Janian and Associates for a free consultation.

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