Nothing is “reportedly” working. Not consistently, anyway, to stem the foreclosure tide and help distressed homeowners keep roofs over their heads.

But, alas, there is the story of Deborah Johnson in the Herald Tribune today, which details the “offer she couldn’t refuse” from her mortgage lender, JP Morgan Chase.

Behind on her mortgage for nearly two years, and seemingly headed for foreclosure, Johnson thought she had exhausted all options. But then Chase called her up one day and offered to forgive $100,000 of her debt, as well as give her $35,000 cash, to move out of her Sarasota, Fla., home.

The catch? All she had to do was agree to a short sale and help find a new buyer to live in her four-bedroom Lockwood Lakes home.

With cash in her pocket, credit salvaged and comfort knowing that she would not be pursued by creditors in the future, Johnson accepted the offer and is currently helping the bank show the home, which is on the market for $118,000, to prospective/buyers investors.

So what’s in it for CHASE, or any other lender in a similar situation? Company spokeswoman Nancy Norris explains the reasoning:

“Foreclosure is a very expensive process for a bank to go through, and in Florida it takes a long time. A short sale gets the same job done in a much shorter period of time, it’s better for the community, it’s better for the homeowner.”

Talk about making the best out of a bad situation.

Local experts were stunned to learn about the offer, calling it a “home run,” comparing it to “hitting the lottery” and referring to it as the “damndest thing I’ve ever heard.”

To search for short sales and other distressed real estate for sale in Florida — or in your local area — click here. On the other hand, if you are having trouble making your mortgage payments contact your lender as soon as possible.

Still looking for ways to cauterize the nationwide foreclosure crisis, the Barack Obama-led administration today announced another plan aimed at keeping roofs over the heads of unemployed homeowners. The latest effort is available to out-of-work homeowners who have FHA-insured loans, which is about 3,500 borrowers a month, according to the Los Angeles Times.

To put that into more perspective, the report indicates that “only 10% of some 50 million mortgage loans outstanding nationwide are backed by the FHA.”

The good news is that mortgage servicers who participate in the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) will be required “whenever possible” to extend the program to distressed homeowners who qualify for the federal loan modification program, adding about another 1 million or more into the mix.

However, the HAMP candidates who qualify for the year-long forbearance could have the 12 missed payments tacked back onto their mortgage balance once they are on solid financial footing.

The report indicates that several “hurdles” are being lifted to qualify for the program, making it easier for unemployed homeowners to qualify for the assistance.

If you’re unemployed and would like to learn more about this latest foreclosure assistance program and others click here.

Information and acronym overload is just one of many ways to describe all the home-saving programs currently huddled under the federal government’s Making Home Affordable umbrella.

Finding out which program may be best for you, as well as whether or not you qualify for it, can be an overwhelming experience. And if you’re in a tight spot like many of your other neighbors, struggling to meet your monthly mortgage obligations, you’re already probably way past the point of being overwhelmed.

MarketWatch.com has compiled a very helpful list of the various foreclosure, loan modification and short sale programs that are available today.

We’ve shared the most important information below, as well as direct links to the various websites where you can gather more information and request/download all the information you need to remedy your situation as quickly as possible.

Check it out:

Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP): If you are on time with your payments but cannot take advantage of today’s lower interest rates because you owe more than your home is currently worth, HARP can help if your loan is held by either Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, the two mortgage giants that touch perhaps half of all loans.

Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP): If you are struggling to make your payments because your income has been curtailed or your interest rate has increased, you may be eligible to have the terms of your loan changed. The amount you owe must be less than $729,250, your loan must have been taken out prior to Jan. 1, 2009, and your total monthly housing outlay — principal, interest, taxes, insurance and homeowner’s association dues — must be more than 31% of your current gross earnings.

Second Lien Modification Program (2MP): For owners who are having a tough time making their house payments because they have a second mortgage, this program offers a way to lower the payments on the junior loan when the primary mortgage is modified under HAMP. Under 2MP, which is meant to be complimentary to HAMP and is somewhat more complicated than the other alternatives, the owner of the second lien and the company administering the loan on its behalf are given monetary incentives to reduce your rate, extend the term or possibly even extinguish the loan altogether.

Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives Program (HAFA): This program is designed to streamline two popular options to foreclosure, a short sale (he loan servicer allows you to sell the property for less than what is owed) and a deed-in-lieu (you voluntarily transfer ownership to the servicer with the understanding that foreclosure proceedings will be dropped). If you can no longer afford your home but want to exit gracefully and avoid the negative effects of foreclosure, this short sale program offers up to a $3,000 cash stipend to help you transition into more affordable housing. To qualify, you cannot be eligible for a trial loan modification, fail to complete a successful trial mod, or miss two consecutive payments during the trial mod period.

To read the entire article about the foreclosure prevention programs mentioned above we strongly recommend that you read the entire article on MarketWatch.com. It also goes into fantastic details about all the documentation and paperwork that you will need to collect to set the process in motion.

Good luck!

That’s the prescription that Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) Chairman, Sheila C. Bair, recently issued to cure the ills of the current (and future) housing market.

Here’s a snip from her presentation before the Summit on Residential Mortgage Servicing for the 21st Century in Washington, D.C.:

“The bottom line is that we need more modifications and fewer foreclosures. When foreclosure is unavoidable, we need it to be done with all fairness to the borrower and in accordance with the law. Only by committing to these principles can we begin to move past the foreclosure crisis and rebuild confidence in our housing and mortgage markets.”

Bair elaborates, saying that a well-trained, adequately-compensated single points of contact are required on the servicer side of things who can work with distressed homeowners and provide them with every last opportunity to stay put.

Far too often “costly miscommunication” and misplaced paperwork gums up the foreclosure process, sending homes to the auction block and their inhabitants to the curb sooner than necessary.

It’s an idea that sounds just like Making Home Affordable, which is a $75 billion government-sponsored loan modification program that has “fallen short” of expectations since its introduction nearly two years ago.

Can, as Bair says, “enforceable requirements” in the loan modification program “significantly improve opportunities for homeowners to avoid foreclosure” or is it fundamentally flawed?

The Wales family will not be forced to vacate their home in Prince William County, Va., after its lender reversed its decision to foreclose, according to the Washington Post.

Mike and Kathy, the homeowners, were promised a loan modification earlier this month. But the paperwork never arrived and their lender went ahead and auctioned off the home instead.

It was a crushing turn of events, considering that the couple has to care for their ‘gravely ill’ 10-year-old son, Alex, who suffers from a rare neurogenetic disorder that has left him blind and unable to walk.

The good news is that once their trying story reached the press, the lender moved fast to fix its mistake. In fact, under terms of the deal, the Wales’ monthly mortgage payment will be reduced and the loan will be extended to 40 years.

Not a fairy tale ending, but a positive outcome nonetheless under what must be incredibly difficult circumstances.

The amount of loan modifications overseen the by the government increased to about 422,000 in July, which is about 33,000 more than the previous month, according to the latest “Housing Scorecard” issued today by the Obama Administration.

However, only 17,000 trial modifications were started in July, which is not even close to the 150,000 distressed homeowners who enrolled when the program first started 10 months ago. By comparison, nearly 100,000 trial modifications were canceled last month for various reasons.

The good news is that Herbert M. Allison, assistant Treasury secretary, says all was not lost for those who dropped out of the program:

“They were able to benefit from reduced mortgage payments each month at no cost to the taxpayers. More than half of those who fell out of the program got another form of modification, caught up on loan payments on their own or received another type of assistance.”

All told, almost 630,000 of the nearly 1.3 million government modifications have been canceled since the program began last March, according to analysis provided by the New York Times.

The billion-dollar program, which was introduced to save three million homeowners from foreclosure, clearly still has a ways to go with a “volume of serious delinquencies continues to work through the pipeline.”

But in a fragile market, any and all positive news is a step in the right direction.