Government mortgage aid plentiful for homeowners

The 'Hope for Homeowners' program was created in response the current mortgage crisis in hopes to help homeowners trade their hazardous loans for conventional 30-year fixed rate loans to lower rates.

Since the program's launch, the government received only 42 applications with in the first two weeks, according to the Federal Housing Administration. Due to the fact processing of the applications takes 60 days, loans have yet to be approved.

'Hope for Homeowners' is available only to those borrowers who are currently spending more than 31 percent of their income on mortgage payments; excluding loans made after January 1st of this year.

John Courson, chief operating officer of the Mortgage Bankers Association, acknowledged "We've said from the start that it would be a tool that would be used after other loss mitigation programs and opportunities would be exhausted".