The Obama administration's efforts to assist homeowners with modifying their existing loans has generated arguably equal amounts of praise and criticism.  Despite its good intentions, the rigid requirements and the actual number of success stories paints a different picture of its success.  Are people owning property such as Miami Beach homes really seeing benefits from government assistance?

Just yesterday news reports surfaced that the mortgage relief program was not living up to its goals but now there's concrete evidence that it really isn't doing as much as the government may like.  Of all the mortgages that were modified to give homeowners room to breathe after defaulting, just over half of them ended up defaulting again anyway.  In other words, Miami Beach homes that are underwater are ultimately not seeing much long term relief.

Could it be that these modifications simply aren't reducing the monthly payment enough?  Some experts believe that mortgage payments should be reduced by as much as twenty percent in order for the default rate to decrease.  Does that seem like the right way to go or do you have entirely different opinion on what should be done to ameliorate the situation and prevent more people from potentially losing their Miami Beach homes?