>
> "If the total expected cost of a modification for a
> lender taking into account the government payments
> is expected to be higher than the direct costs of
> putting the homeowner through foreclosure, that
> borrower will not be eligible."
>
> Nice.
Who's going to calculate that? The bank that holds the mortgage? So if the guy who's being foreclosed is sitting on some still genuinely valuable property, then the cost of foreclosure becomes zero or sub-zero. Sure spells out who it is getting bailed out here.
On the other hand the home-"owner" can himself increase the cost of repossessing the house, for example by taking a crowbar to the drywall.
yrs wdk