White House Foreclosure Plan a $50B Bust

The Obama administration's plan to help millions of homeowners avoid foreclosure has so far been a major failure, Politico reports. It's reached just 160,000 of the 3 to 4 million homeowners it was supposed to protect, and another 2 million homes are expected to be foreclosed upon before the year is out. The White House blames mortgage servicers for dragging their feet, but lawmakers on both side are getting testy.

Progress has been "disgraceful," Senate Banking Chairman Chris Dodd said at a hearing Thursday. The administration has upped pressure on servicers, giving them a deadline of next week to show what steps they're taking to improve their performance, and publishing company-by-company results, to shame lenders into action. “We think that that type of disclosure, servicer-by-servicer, will be important to spurring greater activity on their part,”  a Treasury official told Dodd's committee.
(More foreclosures stories.)