Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Re: Principle reduction

I understand your frustration, but I can assure you that you are not alone. The Oct. 1st law has produced few, if any, results. The main reason seems to be that, although the law is well-intentioned, it overlooks the reality that most individual loans have been packaged and securitized to the extent that it's nearly impossible to reconfigure these loans one at a time.

You may have other options. I'm looking at an article in the San Francisco Chronicle of Sunday, Dec. 7, entitled "Soft Landings in Home Loan Crash" which may be helpful for you to read and pursue one or another of the three programs mentioned. Here are some contacts: U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has a list of approved counseling agencies at (800) five six nine 4287; or try www.links.sfgate.com/ZEVN. For the Chron's summaries of three programs now available, go to links.sfgate.com/ZFOV, links.sfgate.com/ZFOT, links.sfgate.com/ZFOW, and for recent changes go to links.sfgate.com/ZFOU.

(We can't list phone numbers in a LawGuru answer because we're not allowed to solicit business that overtly - so I had to disguise the HUD number to avoid the automatic filters).

There is also a useful article by Peter Eavis of The Wall Street Journal on Page C8 of the Dec. 8 edition, worth hunting up on the 'net or at your local library, trying to explain why the existing programs aren't working very well and that may happen in the near future.