Obama turns attention to short sales

While the Obama administration has focused heavily on foreclosure prevention, the president is turning its attention now to short sales with a new program kicking off April 5. The program will grant banks that service short sales a $1,000 credit, along with another $1,000 for an additional loan, in order to encourage lenders to cut deals with distressed borrowers. Additionally, troubled homeowners who engage in short sales will get a $1,500 relocation assistance credit, which may encourage fewer foreclosures to emerge in the first place. The process is meant to make short sales easier to accomplish and, therefore, more attractive of an option, according to Seth Wheeler, an advisor with the Treasury Department. “We want to streamline and standardize the short sale process to make it much easier on the borrower and much easier on the lender,” Wheeler said.