The U.S. Treasury is poised to announce a finalized plan to expand mortgage relief efforts to include short sales.

A short sale occurs when the bank allows the sale of a home for less than the existing mortgage balance.

It's a strategy to avoid foreclosure, but banks have been more likely to let a home go into foreclosure, rather than short sell it, even if it means holding the property during moratoriums set by some jurisdictions.

That's because short sale bids often come in well below the last appraisal, real estate agents don't want the extra work involved and buyers fear a four-to-five month transaction period that could end in a no-deal scenario.

To help move more distressed properties through the clogged pipeline, the Treasury, under the Making Home Affordable's Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) is expected to announce a $1,500 closing cost incentive for those who agree to short sales or deed-in-lieu deals (the deed is transferred to the lender, avoiding the more costly foreclosure proceeding).

The Treasury will also pay the lender $1,000 for accepting a short sale or deed-in-lieu deal.

Earlier this year when the plan was first announced, there was also a provision to pay second lien holders up to $1,000 to relinquish their claim in such transactions.

Thus far, Refinancing Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac mortgages under the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) and HAMP mortgage modifications have been the "go-to" foreclosure options among federal mortgage relief programs.

Some 260,000 homeowners have refinanced under the HARP program since January, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

FHFA also said during the second quarter this year there were 11,700 short sales and 202,200 trial loan modifications under government programs.

Published: October 22, 2009

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Broderick Perkins parlayed a career in old-school journalism into a contemporary digital news service that really hits home. The award-winning consumer journalist, originally from Wilmington, DE, is founder, publisher and executive editor of the bootstrap DeadlineNews Group, a Silicon Valley-based editorial content and consulting service specializing in residential real estate, consumer news and related editorial consulting services. The DeadlineNews Group includes the website, DeadlineNews.com, offering real estate editorial content and consulting services, and its back shop, the Deadline Newsroom, an open house on news that really hits home. Perkins obtained his formal journalism education from University of Delaware and a journalism boot camp, the Institute of Journalism Education at the University of California-Berkeley. He went on to 20 years of service as a daily newspaper journalist at the Wilmington, DE News Journal and San Jose, CA Mercury News. Perkins covered housing on the San Jose Mercury News reporting team which earned a General News Reporting Pulitzer Prize in 1989 for coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake. He has also produced real estate, consumer and small business content for the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, RealtyTimes.com, Nolo.com, Better Homes and Gardens, the National Association of Realtors, Homestore/Move and Intuit/Quicken among more than three dozen publications. In addition to managing the DeadlineNews Group, Perkins most recently served as chief editorial consultant for Nolo's Essential Guide To Buying Your First Home, Nolo, and writes real estate television scripts for RealtyTimes.com.