Beginning Oct. 1st, struggling borrowers will be able to refinance their home loans with the assistance of the FHA, due to a housing rescue bill passed by Congress last July. The program heading up aid is called Hope for Homeowners.

However, lenders do not seem to be very welcoming in regards to the program. With it, lenders would have to voluntarily refinance delinquent loans by lowering loan balances to 90% of the home´s current market value. The new loan would be backed by the FHA, who would get 5% of the new loan balance from a lender payment. Brian Montgomery, the Assistant Secretary for Housing at the Dept. of Housing and Urban Development, remarked on the perhaps reluctances of the lenders saying, "I think lenders will be enthusiastic about the program but they have other things they'd like to do before they do a principal write down,".

The Senior VP for JPMorganChase Home Lending, Marguerite Sheenan, also spoke about the negatives of the Hope for Homeowners program, from a lender´s point of view. "Under the Program, [investors in the loans] will take a loss when the principal balance is written down," She said that Chase can make monthly payments more affordable by reducing interest rates instead of the loan principle, it would also allow them to make up any losses if home prices improved. Due to these circumstances, JPMorganChase will only use the Hope program if it is the best option in each individual situation, as they would rather use other alternative loan workouts. The FDIC for IndyMac Bank is said to be doing a similar program.