Loan Modification, Obama Administration | featured news

The average homeowner in the Obama administration's signature foreclosure-prevention program owes more on their mortgage than the home is worth, yet the program does virtually nothing to address this problem, according to a scathing new report by a government watchdog.

Many critics of the Obama administration's mortgage loan-modification program say it won't work because it doesn't do enough to address "negative equity," the plight of people who owe more on their home loans than the current value of those properties. Without equity in their homes, these critics say, borrowers have little incentive to keep paying and are apt to walk away as soon as things get tough, if not before.

After a slow start, the Obama administration's mortgage relief program has reached one in five eligible homeowners, a government report says.

Half a million troubled homeowners have seen their loan payments lowered under an Obama administration program.

The Obama administration is pressing mortgage-servicing companies to step up their efforts to modify troubled loans under its housing-rescue program.