Making Home Affordable: Feds to encourage alternatives to foreclosure
By Jan Lindsey
The Make Home Affordable program cannot help every borrower who is in trouble on a mortgage.
Federal officials recognize that and will be offering incentives to mortgage loan servicers and borrowers to encourage them to use a deed-in-lieu-of-foreclosure process or a short sale, rather than a more expensive foreclosure.
The program will apply to distressed homeowners who cannot refinance or modify their mortgage and have to walk away from their home.
The details of the alternative program are still being worked out, but will be announced as soon as they are available, William Apgar, Senior Advisor for Mortgage Finance at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, told the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs on July 16.