New troubles for few who get loan modifications

While loan modifications seem like a foreclosure escape route,
struggling homeowners have had difficulty obtaining them due largely to
overworked banks. Just 14.3 percent of South Floridians who are able to
agree on temporary changes to the terms of their loans end up with new
permanent agreements; of 100,000 modified mortgages in Florida, only
15,000 are now permanent. There is a new problem for struggling
homeowners, however: those who get modifications end up with terms not
unlike those that brought them to foreclosure in the first place, like
balloon payments. [Sun-Sentinel]