Lenders are working hard to prevent foreclosure, but the numbers are still rising. In February lenders assisted almost 250,000 homeowners with mortgage modification or a new repayment plan. Mortgage modification accounted for about 134,000 of those assisted, and involves lowering a loan´s interest rate, extending the mortgage term, or lowering the principal owed. The rest of those assisted received new repayment plans, which are not as effective as modification as they only add late payments to the end of the loan without reducing payment or making things more affordable in the long run. The director for Hope Now, Faith Schwartz, commented on the number assisted, saying "The mortgage lending industry is responding to the needs of its customers and offering solutions that are appropriate to the current market and economic conditions,".

The problem is that it almost seems like a losing battle is being fought. From January to February, homes beginning the foreclosure process rose from 217,000 to 243,000. Repossession also went up 28%, from 68,000 to 87,000. This was a definite blow to the market, as everyone had begun to believe that the crisis was starting to slow, foreclosures having gone from 77,000 in October to 69,000 in November, and then to 56,000 in December. Of course says Schwartz, the figures for Feb. could have been a lot more drastic due to the extreme job loss also hitting the nation, "We're shedding 650,000 jobs a week,...But there's more flexibility [by the lenders]. They're offering more forbearance in response to job losses."

As far as what is to come, Schwartz says that Obama´s foreclosure prevention plan could really make a change, "We won't see a spike right away,... It takes 90 days to complete a modification. Over the next three months we'll start to see some pull-through." According to Schwartz, things should start getting ready to move in April, "the month to get all the implementation details done on the new plan so that everything is crystal clear when they start using it,". In all, almost 1,395,044 homes have been foreclosed since the start of the market crisis in July 2007.