Obama administration unveils homeowner affordablity and stability plan details

The Obama Administration today announced new U.S. Dept. of the Treasury guidelines to enable servicers to begin modifications of eligible mortgages under the Administration's Homeowner Affordability and Stability plan. The Making Home Affordable program details announced today will offer assistance to as many as 9 million homeowners. The guidelines will implement financial incentives for mortgage lenders to modify existing first mortgages and set standard industry practice for modifications.

The Treasury Dept. also announced that the Making Home Affordable program will include additional incentives for efforts made to extinguish second liens on loans modified under this program. Extinguishing second liens will make mortgages more affordable, improve loan performance, and help prevent foreclosures.

In conjunction with the release of the new guidelines, the Treasury Dept., the U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and others have prepared a consumer-friendly Q&A and eligibility assessment tools for borrowers available at http://www.financialstability.gov/.

More details, including a fact sheet, are available at the following links:

Making Home Affordable Refinance and Modification Options: http://www.financialstability.gov/makinghomeaffordable/index.html;

Summary of guidelines: www.treas.gov/press/releases/reports/guidelines_summary.pdf;

Modification program guidelines: www.treas.gov/press/releases/reports/modification_program_guidelines.pdf;

Fact sheet: www.treas.gov/press/releases/reports/housing_fact_sheet.pdf.