CNNMoney is adding to the discussion with its report Few getting long-term mortgage relief.

A snippet:

Under the president’s plan, delinquent borrowers are put into trial modifications for several months to make sure they can handle the new payments and to give them time to submit their financial paperwork. If they qualify for a long-term modification, borrowers can keep making the lower payments for five years, after which time the interest rate is set at the rate at the time of the adjustment, or about 5% today.

The number of permanent modifications reported is expected to be small, industry observers said. Servicers say they are having trouble getting the necessary documents from borrowers, while homeowners maintain that their servicers are repeatedly losing the paperwork.

And, the question remains, how many people will meet the criteria necessary to adjust their loans for the long-term?

Do not stress out yet. You do have other options.

If $100 or $200 off your mortgage payment would make a difference in your household budget or cash flow, does it really matter where that savings comes from?

No.

For a roundup of money-saving tips based on household budget categories, go to my series The Downsized Budget: How and Where to Cut Back.

Many of the cost-cutting steps I outline for working class and middle-class families do require an investment of time and / or money up front to see financial savings later. You’ll find an explanation on how that works at There’s no quick fix for a downsized income.

Families have always moved in and out of this part of the city for a variety of reasons. But during the past year, there has been a lot more moving out than moving in.

It’s a bit rattling for my husband and I to realize that one more neighbor is in the process of moving. It’s a family that we’ve been friendly enough with to suspect the reason is based on finances, but not friendly enough to ask details that are none of our business.

My instinctive response to the increased home vacancies in my zip code is to make it obvious to anyone who lives in the neighborhood or is just passing by that: Someone still lives HERE!

How do I show that there is still a family here, and not the shadows of foreclosure?

• I’ve taken to keeping some kind of seasonal decoration on the front porch. We’ve long had Christmas and patriotic decor displayed during the appropriate seasons, but I’m adding a few more items to the mix.
• We check the front door frequently for packages, newspapers, etc. (We are often entering the home via the back door).
• The trash bins go out to the curb, and back in their storage area, at the designated times of the week.
• We try to keep the outdoor leaf piles, snow, cobwebs, grass and weeds under control.
• The lights are turned off and on as we move from room to room (I tend to frequently wander about the house as I work on projects and chores).
• My car is sometimes parked in front of the house, instead of in the garage. I’m doing this for convenience sake when I’m in and out during the day, but it does give a message that this car belongs to this house.

What are you doing to give the message in your neighborhood that “Someone still lives here!”?

A snippet:

“The most disturbing aspect of this is that it’s becoming acceptable to do,” says Joel Naroff, an economist with Naroff Economic Advisors. “What does that mean down the road for housing and the economy if people are happy to walk away and destroy their credit? They’re saying, ‘Why pay a high amount if they can get something, even a rental, for less?’ “

Yes, I find that trend a bit disturbing myself.

My husband and I waited a long time before we went into the housing market. It’s a good thing we picked a home that will last us well into retirement – because it’s worth a lot less now than what we paid for it.

And we’re planning to stay put.

Would you like another way to deal with tight finances and leave your housing situation intact? I’ve got a collection of tips at the Downsized Budget series.

However, this headline will certainly be of interest to my Michigan and Ohio readers. The unemployment rate in Michigan has been 15 percent all summer.

USA Today is reporting Unemployed homeowners could get financial assistance.

A snippet:

The Obama administration is engaged in high-level talks about providing financial assistance to homeowners who’ve lost their jobs and can’t afford their mortgage payments.

The Treasury Department held meetings on the subject as recently as Thursday with key stakeholders, according to Laura Armstrong, a spokeswoman for Hope Now, an alliance of non-profits and mortgage servicers, and more discussions are planned.

Proposals include getting servicers to let jobless homeowners skip some monthly payments, according to Faith Schwartz, executive director of Hope Now.

There are more than 450 comments posted on that story.

Some of the chatter revolves around who is “deserving” of such assistance and whether bad choices such as overspending on homes, rather than unemployment itself, are causing personal financial problems.

This is nothing new. The “who deserves it?” question is the unspoken reason for nearly every application process involved with seeking financial help. That’s why you have to show at the very least, proof of income, for a lot of financial safety net programs. That’s also why you have to deal with an annoying amount of red tape for so many of those programs.

Others commenting on the story are pointing out that this idea is coming along a little too late to help a lot of families whose homes have already been lost, or who are in danger of doing so in the near future.

But a money-saving resource or program almost always involves eligibility dates and deadlines. Every college scholarship has an application deadline. Miss the deadline, and your application won’t be considered. And every sale at a grocery or drug store is valid only for the stated week or sometimes stated day. Buy milk one day before it goes on sale, and you are paying the regular price.

So we have been focusing my family’s money-saving efforts in other directions.

But I have been watching the news reports and headlines on that topic, and I’m not pleased with the recent analysis and statistics.

USA Today is reporting today that Many mortgage modifications push payments … higher.

A snippet:

Of loans modified from Jan. 1, 2008, through March 31, 2009, monthly payments increased on 27% and were left unchanged on an additional 27.5%, according to a recent report by banking regulators. Many modified mortgages fall delinquent — 25% to 40%, depending on the type of mortgage — often because of homeowners’ loss of income or additional outstanding debt, according to a report last month by CreditSights, a financial research firm.

“Payments have gone up …. (and) the payment relief can last for the first few years and then go up (again),” says Alan White, assistant professor of law at the Valparaiso University School of Law in Valparaiso, Ind. …

The majority of borrowers who’ve gotten mortgage modifications have seen their overall principal balance go up, according to an analysis by CreditSights and ICP of about 660,000 mortgages modified this year. In about 90% of the modifications, the principal balance after a modification was larger, CreditSights said.

Well, what can you do instead?

Let’s say you need $150 off your expenses every month to make ends meet. Now, while it would be great to take that off your mortgage payment through the magic of refinancing … these statistics on the mortgage modification programs aren’t providing a lot of incentive to take that route.

Does it really matter where that $150 comes from?

In the long run, no.

What if you might be able to make that savings happen elsewhere?

Look through my Downsized Budget series to find money-saving tips in every category of your household budget.

A snippet:

Just 12% of eligible mortgages have been modified under a $75 billion federal program to rework home loans into more affordable monthly payments, according to a Treasury Department report Wednesday.

A total of 360,165 mortgage modifications are in a three-month trial period, and another 571,354 offers for modifications have been made to struggling homeowners, the report says.

Hmm. I didn’t know about that “three month trial period.” Here’s more information about that detail.

U.S. Rep. John D. Dingell, D-Dearborn, will host an assistance forum from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday Sept. 1 for residents of southeast Michigan who are facing foreclosure.

The forum will take place at Washtenaw Community College Morris Lawrence Building, 4800 E. Huron River Dr., Ann Arbor, Mich. The program will give people an opportunity to meet with experts — including lenders, counselors and Realtors — to discuss ways to avert foreclosure.

“I believe that all Americans should be able to achieve home ownership,” said Rep. Dingell. “Foreclosures hurt families that are working to achieve the American dream and usually lead to significant losses for banks. Alternatives to foreclosure that keep families in their homes and making their mortgage payments benefit both families and financial institutions.

“I hope that this forum helps families find ways to stay in their homes and helps banks avoid foreclosure-related losses.”

The event is open to the public.

A snippet:

Eligible residents received Countrywide loans between January 2004 and December 2008, including sub-prime loans or adjustable rate mortgages and later lost their homes.

The event is part of the team’s Facing the Mortgage Crisis Project.