A group of protesters gathered outside Bank of America’s annual corporate meeting in Loveland, Colorado to express their discontent with the bank’s mortgage and loan practices. The demonstration, organized by Colorado Progressive Coalition, aimed to expose tactics they said are forcing families into foreclosure.

Demonstrators, with the help of local police, faxed a letter to the bank’s CEO describing the struggles of one Colorado woman, Linda Stapel. Stapel was denied loan modification for no reason at all.

The Colorado Progressive Coalition is currently working closely with state attorney general to to sue large banks for bad loan and mortgage practices.

The number of loan modifications completed during the first quarter was up 22 percent from the end of last year, and up 25 percent from the first quarter of 2010. Approximately 13 percent of this year’s loan modifications were completed through the federal Home Affordable Modification Program.

In order to qualify for loan modification home owners must prove financial distress and have a verifiable source of income with which to make modified payments. There are still some homeowners struggling to make modified home loan payments, and defaults still continue even within the modification program.

More options are becoming available to homeowners in distress who do not meet the criteria for home loan modification.

For the first time ever the U.S. treasury has promised to release to the public demographic records on loan modification recipients.

Despite requests by housing and consumer advocacy groups, the government has stalled on the release of loan modification demographic information until now. Housing advocates have been waiting over a year for the data to be made public. Such information is key in preventing foreclosure, identifying patterns, and analyzing how effective loan modification has been at helping those in need.

Michelle Lerner over at Financial Edge recently posted an interesting article on predicted mortgage trends for 2011. Most of these are pulled from the Mortgage Bankers Association.

1. Mortgage rates will slowly rise through the year

2. Overall demand for mortgages will decrease

3. Mortgage refinancing applications will drop

4. Mortgage applications for home purchases will become a greater part of the market

5. All-cash purchases will become a greater part of the market

6. The mortgage loan process will remain slow and complex

It will be interesting to see which of these proves to be accurate!

A report released on Tuesday by the Congressional Oversight Panel revealed that the Obama administration’s loan modification program will only assist 700,000 out of nearly 4 million struggling homeowners it had intended to assist. Ted Kaufman, chairman of the Oversight Panel said, “It’s not what we were all hoping for, but it is something.”

The Obama administration’s Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) was launched in 2009 with a commitment of $75 billion to help homeowners who could not afford their hefty mortgage payments. However, now it seems that the Obama administration may allocate only $4 million dollars to the program, a steep drop from the initial intended $75 billion.

The Oversight Panel said, “Absent a dramatic and unexpected increase in HAMP enrollment, many billions of dollars set aside for foreclosure mitigation may well be left unused. As a result, an untold number of borrowers may go without help.”

Ask someone how long they thing the housing crisis will continue and you’ll get a different answer every time. Extreme optimists predict rebounds within the year, and some pessimists insist we are doomed for ten years to come.

So what is the answer to this popular question?

Of course, there’s no sure way to predict the future, but according to Rick Sharga of RealtyTrac, we won’t see a full market recovery until well into 2014. Pete Flint, chief executive of Trulia.com, a real estate search and research website says mortgage rates will rise in 2011, making homes even less affordable, and thwarting the market even further. Flint also says that interest rates on 30-year fixed rate loans will rise to 5 percent, making already unaffordable mortgage payments even heftier.

Only time will tell if these predictions prove to be accurate. Until then, we can only speculate.

President Obama has introduced a $75 billion Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan (HASP) initiative to help homeowners who can no longer afford their monthly mortgage payments. The program will assist homeowners in distress by either modifying the terms of their loans, or refinancing the entire mortgage altogether.

In order to qualify for the program consumers must have an ongoing mortgage which is less than $730,000. Another criteria is the contract which has to be signed before January the first, 2009.

According to recent reports serious mortgage delinquencies are down for the first time in three years. Some believe this could the case due to the tax refunds that homeowners recently received, which could effect whether this figure will continue to decline. There is still a chance that many people will re-default on their loans in the coming months.

Filings of foreclosures are slowing in the largest metro areas, but according to experts this is not a sign of healing. Most of these metro areas are in States like California, Florida and Arizona, where many people still owe much more on their house then it is actually worth. It will take a decent amount of time before there is a significant change in the housing market.

The housing market in Southern California showed signs of improvement in March with sale prices increasing. It helps that people are rushing to buy before the federal tax incentive expires, that along with low interest rates make it a good time for buyers. The prices of new and pre-owned homes jumped 14% last month, which is a reassuring increase for a market that has faltered so much over the last few years. Though many experts are still mixed on whether this is a sign of the market improving, as many believe that more foreclosures are on the way.