25% underwater? No problem!

HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan announced today that:

the Fannie and Freddie refi plan ... would now be expanded to negative 25 percent equity... [Y]our loan can be a full 25 percent more than the current value of your home, and Fannie and Freddie will gladly buy and/or back your new refi.

SOURCE: CNBC

Loan modifications on the rise, due to Making Home Affordable Program

Up 55% in Q1 over the previous quarter

The pace of home loan modifications shot up during the first quarter, but so did mortgage payment delinquencies and foreclosures, U.S. bank regulators said Tuesday.

The quarterly report on mortgage metrics showed that the quality of modifications improved, with more than half of them resulting in lower monthly principal and interest payments.

But the report released by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Office of Thrift Supervision presented mixed signals of improvement and distress as rising unemployment and other economic pressures weighed on borrowers.

A good start, but we have a ways to go until we're out of the hole.

SOURCE: CNBC