Obama administration boosts aid for unemployed homeowners

This is excellent information. The Administration has taken a hit concerning other foreclosure relief programs. I hope this one is monitored more closely and hold those accountable that are non-responsive to those in need.

Still scrambling to stabilize the struggling housing market, the Obama administration will allow some unemployed homeowners to miss a year of mortgage payments without threat of foreclosure while they try to find a new job.

The expanded assistance — triple the current limit of four months for those with government-insured mortgages — could help "tens of thousands" of people keep their homes, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan said.

"Helping struggling borrowers avoid default is not only good for those borrowers, it is good for the economy," he said.

But hoping to avoid high expectations that have accompanied other administration foreclosure efforts, Donovan cautioned Thursday that the move wasn't a "silver bullet."

The new requirement for so-called forbearance comes on top of several initiatives the White House has launched since 2009 to try to stem the tide of foreclosures, which continue to drive down real estate prices.

President Obama admitted this week that those efforts — such as the much-maligned Home Affordable Modification Program, which offered incentives to banks to lower monthly payments for troubled borrowers — haven't tamed the problem.

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