Recent figures show that only a small fraction of homeowners are seeing any kind of permanent relief under the federal Making Homes Affordable Program (HAMP), and fewer consumers are applying for the program, leading one well-known economics blog to suggest that the program is dying.
Thus, a major effort by President Obama’s administration to assist homeowners and keep them out of foreclosure appears to be failing.
On Monday, the government issued data showing that HAMP only helped 300,000 defaulting households obtain permanent relief by way of new loans. Yet, there appear to be over four million households in danger of losing their homes through foreclosure.
The government previously estimated that HAMP would help 1.7 million households.