It has been a bewildering year as homeowners nationwide have had to deal with massive job losses, the insolvency of banks and continued tidal waves of imminent foreclosures.

The harsh reality of this appalling situation is a paltry 4 percent of total homeowners receiving long-term mortgage assistance who faced foreclosure this past year.

This has created a whirlwind of lawmakers trying to explore financial alternatives within the Obama administration aimed at helping the remaining 96 percent who may still lose their homes.

Demographics are showing that approximately two million homes and other real estate elements are falling into foreclosure or are bank-owned with more losses coming.

The government’s current solutions have been futile at saving homes from this foreclosure epidemic and that there is an anticipated 8 million foreclosures looming on the horizon as the economy falters according to Citigroup analysts.

Could the answer lie in encouraging more short sales? Well, the National Association of Realtors reported that over 500,000 home sales in 2009 were actually short sales. This was almost 10 percent of total house sales for the year.

Interestingly, Bloomberg.com said that banks who were once contrary to these type transactions are beginning to go along with short sales in larger numbers.

Further data shows that short sales almost tripled to 40,000 in the first six months of 2009, compared to the same months in 2008 as reported by the St. Louis Refinancing Group and the local lending community.

The Office of Thrift Supervision and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency seems to feel that in reality there were 25 foreclosures started or completed for each short sale filed and completed.

Mr. Richard Green, the director of the Lusk Center for Real Estate at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles writes: “It’s really finally dawning on banks that they’re better off with a short sale. I think banks were in denial.”

Most homeowners don’t know this but there are a few benefits in doing a short sale. You remain in control of the sale as like any other home sale. And you can spare yourself the social stigma of having a foreclosure on your credit report.

And if your mortgage payments were never 30 days late and the lender didn’t require you to pay back the loan, you would be allowed to purchase a future home after said short sale occurred according to Fannie Mae guidelines either immediately or after a waiting period of no more than 3 years.

However, if your mortgage payments fell behind more than 30 days and a short sale was approved by the lender, you still may qualify to buy another home with Fannie Mae within 2 years.

But what if you were a victim of foreclosure? Do not despair. Even with restrictions in place, you may qualify to by another home within 5 years and if there’s no restrictions in place, within 7 years.

And for those who are investors and do not occupy the home, the wait to buy with a Fannie Mae insured loan is 7 years.

With political pressures escalating from demanding consumers in the mortgage arena, the Obama administration has had no choice but to champion the short sale as a feasible alternative to foreclosure.

There have been finalized guidelines carefully defined by the Treasury Department for utilizing short sales under the Making Homes Affordable program.

Under the new Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternative (HAFA) program, the administration is urging participating servicers to follow through with short sales as an alternative to foreclosure.

This new program known as HAFA was executed to assist distressed homeowners who were not able to qualify for a temporary or permanent loan modification under the (HAMP) Home Affordable Modification Program.

Learn more about the best St Louis Mortgage loan. Stop by Floyd J. Tapia’s site where you can find out all about a St Louis Mortgage Refinancing and what a new home loan or refinancing can do for you.

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