Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

It depends what loan mod program you are applying for. Obama's program will bring it down to around 31% DTI, or your particular bank's loan mod program, which most likely has its own standards.

95% DTI? That's extremely suspicious. If somebody has that much of their income for debts, how do they even survive (5% left for all other necessary expenses of life)? There's only so much a loan mod can do to reduce such a person's mortgage payments down to let's say 31 to 38% DTI, which is typical. I would be extremely cautious about these loan mod websites out there, which are rampant with fraud.

Be careful about the terminology here. Technically, a debt-to-income ratio is a near-meaningless number, because income is an income-statement concept, whereas debt is a balance sheet concept.

I think the intended ratio should be the relationship between your monthly or annual spendable income, on the one hand, and your monthly or annual fixed obligations for principal, interest, taxes and insurance, on the other.

If you are a million dollars in debt, that's not nearly so significant to compare with your $100,000 salary as is your annual payment on that million. Maybe it's a credit-card balance where the interest rate is 29.99%. Or, maybe it's a loan from Grampa Gus who doesn't charge you interest if you remember his birthdays.