The HAMP program issued one bit of good news: permanent loan mods were up 45% in January.  The bad news is, this is just a miniscule amount of the 1.8 million homeowners who are behind in their payments in the U.S.

The total HAMP permanent loans processed during the month of January
Were 170,000 according to the Treasury Department.  There are nearly another 92,000 awaiting the homeowner’s signature to move from trial to permanent loan.

Lenders have sent offers to 1.3 million homeowners to start the program, which is less than the government’s goal of reaching out to 3 to 4 million homeowners in potential trouble.  The government has until 2012 to reach this goal.

There is still a lot of finger-pointing going on between loan processors and homeowners.  Processors claim the problem is in incomplete paperwork.  The federal government is patching this loophole starting June 1 by requiring all necessary paperwork to be submitted before a trial loan modification can be started.

Still, by government calculations $2.7 billion has already been saved by approximately 1 million borrowers who have received trial or permanent loan modifications, an average of $500 per borrower.

The five lenders that have completed the largest number of loan modifications—Wells Fargo, Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Citi Mortgage and GMAC.  Wells Fargo is leading the pack.