Obama Wants 500,000 Mortgage Modifications By November 1st Including In San Diego

The Obama administration set the goal to have 500,000 or more loan modifications by November 1st of this year, including those homeowners in San Diego and Orange County, California. The current estimate is that around 200,000 loan modifications are being processed nationwide. Many of them are being processed in Southern California. San Diego has seen a surge of loan modification candidates as a result in the decline in the economy, bad loans, and the falling housing prices. Many loan modifications fail due to lack of qualifying, time delays while the homeowner is in foreclosure, or lack of skills by the loan modification company. Many San Diego and Orange County loan mod companies have been shut down recently due to illegal practices. We are familiar with cases that the lender has foreclosed while the homeowner is in a modification, so despite the effort on the homeowners part, the home may still be lost.

Loan modification servicers recently met with the Obama Administration officials currently participating in the Obama modification program. The largest complaint by loan modification candidates is in the delays in processing their loan mod applications. These modifications can take up to 6 months to get through in San Diego, leaving homeowners in the darks whether the modification will be approved, and if will meet their needs. "[T]oo many homeowners are at risk of foreclosure right now," Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said in a statement after the meeting. "Today's meeting was an opportunity to identify ways to accelerate the program and bring relief faster."

So far the modification program put in place in February this year has not been effective, admits the Obama Administration. "Our mortgage program has actually helped to modify mortgages for a lot of our people, but it hasn't been keeping pace with all the foreclosures that are taking place," Obama said last month. San Diego loan modification is still a viable alternative for San Diego homeowners who wish to keep their home, despite their negative equity position. Keep in mind that if your home is upside down, it will likely to remain so for years to come.

Suggestions by the loan servicers handling the loan modifications suggested a streamlining the paperwork and creating an online presence to facilitate the submission of the paperwork. Sanjiv Das, chief executive of CitiMortgage, said: "Today's meeting was an important step toward the administration's and our shared objective of improving the effectiveness and efficiency of the Make Home Affordable mortgage modification program.