I was reading in the Virginia-Pilot that the foreclosure crisis may be letting up a bit. For the first time in three years the number of homeowners falling behind on their loans is declining. This should help the housing market some but there are so many homes in default that the pain will probably last for years to come. Thats the good news, the not so good news is that there are still a record number of foreclosures on the market or coming on the market.
It also appears more banks are delaying foreclosure and trying to help buyers with the mortgage relief effort. The banks can lower interest rates to 2% for five years and extend the loan to 40 years. So far it looks like out of a million homeowners who enrolled, only 116,300 have been helped. Not a good track record but every little bit helps.
In addition, the federal government announced that housing agencies in Florida, California, Florida, Michaigan and Nevada will 1.5 billion in financial rescue money. The money will to to local programs that help unemployed homeowners, "under water" borrowers and incentives to lenders to give borrowers money for second mortgages.
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