Only 4 percent of applicants receive permanent modifications: Treasury Dept.

Only 31,382 troubled homeowners have received permanent mortgage modifications through Obama’s federal program, while nearly 30,650 people in trial modifications have been denied as of Nov. 30, according to a recent report released by the U.S. Treasury Department. Since the program launched in the spring, a total of 759,058 trial modifications were started, but only 4 percent of them became permanent ones. “Our focus now is on working with servicers, borrowers and organizations to get as many of those eligible homeowners as possible into permanent modifications,” said Phyllis Caldwell, chief of the Treasury’s Homeownership Preservation Office. The lack of permanent modifications has created concerns that the $75 billion plan will fall far short of the federal mortgage modification plan introduced this spring to help up to four million delinquent homeowners.