Lenders and homeowners will have additional resources to avoid home foreclosures and modify mortgages as a result of initiatives announced today by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Housing Secretary Shaun Donovan.

The program streamlines the process for completing short sales or for obtaining deeds-in-lieu of foreclosure. It also increases financial incentives for lenders to modify mortgages, especially in areas where home prices have declined the most.

These are modifications to the administration's Making Home Affordable program that launched earlier this year. The two cabinet secretaries said that so far more than 55,000 modification offers have been made, and loan servicers have sent more than 300,000 letters to people who have qualified for the program.