According to MSN Real Estate, the number of homes entering into to foreclosure has jumped nearly 100% since last year as efforts to stem the surge have come too little too late, with a sizable jump in the number of homes completing the foreclosure process and being taken back by the bank, also referred to as real-estate owned, or REO.

This surge in foreclosures and the resulting drain on the economy is "the most significant current risk" to the economy, according to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, who in a recent speech warned of the "immediate need" for lenders to modify and refinance more loans.

Countrywide Financial, one of the nation's largest lenders, recently announced that it will refinance or modify up to $16 billion of adjustable-rate mortgages through the end of 2008, to help as many as 82,000 borrowers stay in their homes.

Why more lenders weren't willing to offer these fast-track solutions earlier is puzzling to many, even those inside the industry.

Countrywide and other lenders have recently come under fire for making loans that borrowers could not afford and, in today's market, cannot refinance. Of the $468.2 billion in loans that Countrywide made in 2006, $40.6 billion were nonprime.

Lenders say they are taking steps to contact troubled borrowers and work with them. But often, by the time they get approval for a loan modification, it's too late and borrowers have already lost their home.

Many state housing groups have stepped in to bail out troubled homeowners, before the problem does significant damage to their communities.

One company, Hudson's agency, launched a program last week, to negotiate with lenders to reduce the payoff on some loans that are over market value. It also plans to sell state bonds to help underwrite the cost of making new 30-year fixed-rate loans to 500 to 1,000 distressed homeowners in the next 18 months.

At least a dozen other states have launched assistance programs. Some simply offer counseling hot lines, but a handful in Ohio, Delaware, Maryland, New York and Massachusetts help borrowers to refinance, and one in Michigan helps borrowers with mortgage payments when they become involuntarily unemployed. However, many of these programs -- including Pennsylvania's -- are only just now taking applications or refinancing their first loans.

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