NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — More troubled homeowners have fallen out of trial mortgage modifications than have received long-term help, a new government report released Monday shows.

But nearly half of these borrowers received alternate help, while only 7% have fallen into foreclosure, according to the latest report on the administration’s signature housing-rescue plan, Home Affordable Modification Program, known as HAMP.

Also, trying to bolster the perception of its overall housing rescue efforts, the Obama administration separately debuted a so-called housing scorecard on Monday, which provided various statistics about the market’s performance over the past two years. More

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration’s flagship effort to help people in danger of losing their homes is falling flat.

More than a third of the 1.24 million borrowers who have enrolled in the $75 billion mortgage modification program have dropped out. That exceeds the number of people who have managed to have their loan payments reduced to help them keep their homes.

Last month alone,155,000 borrowers left the program — bringing the total to 436,000 who have dropped out since it began in March 2009.

About 340,000 homeowners have received permanent loan modifications and are making payments on time.

Administration officials say the housing market is significantly better than when President Barack Obama entered office. They say those who were rejected from the program will get help in other ways. More

More than three-quarters of homeowners who have had their monthly mortgage payments reduced under the Obama administration’s primary foreclosure-prevention program owe more on their mortgage than their house is worth, according to a new report by government auditors.

Over half of the roughly 170,000 distressed borrowers who have gone through the program are seriously underwater, meaning they have negative equity of at least 25 percent, the report shows, citing data through February. In other words, for every $1.00 their home is worth, they owe at least $1.25.

The average homeowner that’s received a five-year modified mortgage under the administration’s plan had negative equity of about 35 percent prior to the program, according to a Wednesday report by the Congressional Oversight Panel, a federal bailout watchdog. After modification, that burden actually increased for the average homeowner, who is now underwater by more than 43 percent, according to the bailout watchdog’s report. Research shows that the more under water homeowners are, the more likely they are to fall behind on payments, default, or walk away. More

WASHINGTON (AP) — A trio of former Washington Mutual officials and a trove of documents on Tuesday portrayed a pattern of breakneck loan-making and alleged fraud at the biggest U.S. bank ever to fail.

Former CEO Kerry Killinger defended WaMu’s actions at a Senate hearing and insisted the government should not have seized it at the height of the financial crisis in September 2008.

Killinger argued that WaMu had adequate capital and shouldn’t have been shut down and sold for a “bargain” price of $1.9 billion. The bank “should have been given a chance to work its way through the crisis,” he testified at a hearing by a Senate panel. More

Millions more Americans are facing financial security as a result of stabilizing home prices, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said Sunday, even though only about 66,000 people have benefited from permanent mortgage loan modifications aimed to prevent foreclosure, a figure that has resulted in a House panel investigation.

Geithner said the mortgage modification program has helped 750,000 Americans so far to lower their monthly payments substantially even though he tacitly acknowledged that many of the temporary, verbal agreements have not been made permanent. More

he latest spin on government-sponsored mortgage modifications demands that home owners provide an initial package of documents before the first phase of a modification can begin.

The newest plan for the ever-evolving Obama Administration’s Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) also requires lenders (or servicers) to review the documentation and respond with an approval or rejection within 30 days.

The new guidance also details how lenders must convert a trial modification to a permanent one

Effective June 1, 2010, the new provisions are designed to speed up the process of getting struggling home owners into mortgage modifications they can afford. It doesn’t really change the documents required, just the process. More

Desperate homeowners hoping for mortgage relief from the $75 billion federal foreclosure rescue plan may see speedier results with changes announced Thursday by the Treasury Department.

The adjustments come less than two weeks after a report showed just 66,465 homeowners nationally — 8,405 in Florida — have received permanent monthly payment reductions through the nearly year-old Making Home Affordable Program.

Beginning June 1, borrowers will be required to provide up front proof of income and a request for a tax return transcript when applying for a modification. Currently, some trial modifications are awarded based only on a borrower’s verbal report of income — a practice that has left banks complaining about receiving incorrect documentation, and homeowners saying they have to send the same information over and over. More

The Obama administration is trying to simplify the paperwork for people seeking lower home-mortgage payments in an effort to avert more foreclosures.

The Treasury outlined new guidelines Thursday aimed at streamlining requirements for mortgage relief under the administration’s Home Affordable Modification Program launched a year ago.

The guidelines specify that borrowers must provide three items to loan servicers, the companies that collect mortgage payments: a form requesting a loan modification, authorization for the servicer to seek tax information from the Internal Revenue Service and evidence of income, such as two recent pay stubs. Previously, some servicers have asked borrowers to fax in copies of their tax returns. Borrowers sometimes couldn’t find the needed tax forms or complained that servicers repeatedly lost material faxed to them.

The previous documentation requirements were “somewhat overwhelming” for some borrowers, says Morgan McCarty, head of mortgage servicing at Regions Financial Corp., a banking company based in Birmingham, Ala. More

Desperate homeowners scrambling to get a loan modification through federal foreclosure relief programs are beginning to shun the offer, opting for a strictly business approach to the dilemma — walking away.

Because the majority of modifications don’t reduce the principal payment on loans made during the overpriced boom years, underwater mortgages could still be drowning 10 years out.

The better option for those borrowers, some say, is to take the hit now and attempt a short sale, deed in lieu, or even allow their home to go into foreclosure. More

The courts are becoming the last refuge for homeowners who are in foreclosure but still hope to remain in their homes under a loan modification. Actions taken by courts or by the state government in Pennsylvania, Florida, New Jersey and Connecticut are requiring mediation between mortgage servicers and delinquent borrowers before the property at issue is allowed to be sold.

The Court of Common Pleas for Philadelphia County launched the Residential Mortgage Foreclosure Diversion Program in April 2008. This pilot program required a judicially supervised “conciliation conference” between the owner-occupant of residential property and the lender or mortgage servicer before the property was eligible for a sheriff sale. More

Foreclosures are still at an all time high but luckily now there are more options available. The Bank of America home loan modification approval process is offering help to those who are about to lose their homes.

There are things that you must know if you are wanting to apply for a modification at the Bank of America. More

The California State Bar said today it shut down the loan modification businesses of two men for allegedly lying to consumers about being supervised by attorneys. The bar, which acted with the Orange County Superior Court in this case, has worked with other state and local officials to crack down on companies promising homeowner aid but not delivering it.  More