Greetings neighbors,

The plan to fight foreclosures is finally coming into its own according to recent numbers from the U.S. Department of the Treasury and Department of Housing and Urban Development. As of the end of January 2010, over 116,000 homeowners were approved and received permanent loan modifications through the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP). In addition, 76,000 distressed homeowners have been approved for permanent loan modifications.

This is a significant increase in numbers and a big leap for HAMP. In 2009, the program struggled to obtain any significant numbers in relevance to permanent loan modifications. In comparison to just a few months ago in December, 66,000 homeowners had received permanent loan modifications and 44,000 had been approved. However, December numbers were still a vast improvement considering the program struggled throughout last year.

Currently, there are 1.8 million homes heading towards foreclosure, meaning home owners are in extreme default on payments according to Standard & Poor's. There are 940,000 homeowners that are currently on trail loan modifications through HAMP.

HAMP RECAP:

Announced on March 4, 2009 by the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) is a loan modification program implemented to reduce mortgage payments for at risk borrowers that are severely delinquent in monthly payments.