Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have issued new guidelines designed to speed up short sales and make them more consistent, but real estate agents question whether they are achievable in the real world.

In a short sale, a lender agrees to accept less than the amount owed on a property and release its lien.

Under the new guidelines, which take effect June 15, servicers have 30 days to review and respond to short sale offers or requests. If they need more than 30 days, they must provide the borrower weekly updates and a final response within 60 days.

If the borrower is requesting a short sale under the government’s Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternative program, the clock starts ticking when the borrower submits a completed borrower response package requesting consideration of a short sale.

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Sales of homes for at least $500,000 jumped 36 percent in March from February, outpacing the total sales increase of 28.1 percent for those months, DataQuick said.

DataQuick said about half of the purchases of existing homes were distressed sales. Homes that were foreclosed upon in the previous year made up 31.1 percent of existing home sales. Short sales – where the seller owes more than the purchase price – accounted for 18.9 percent.

Absentee buyers – largely investors and second-home purchasers – continued to drive the recovery, buying 28 percent of all homes.

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Now that the country is about five years into one of the worst economic periods in its history, it’s become more clear what factors motivate the financially able to stop making their mortgage payments. Homeowners say they are unable to modify their home loans with difficult lenders, need to move but can’t sell their homes, and can’t keep justifying paying for a home that’s already lost so much equity.

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Five California men have been charged with defrauding struggling homeowners who were seeking government mortgage help, federal authorities said.

The defendants, all from Orange County, took part in an increasingly “common hoax, preying on the most vulnerable homeowners, who were desperately seeking help,” Christy Romero, the inspector general who oversees the Troubled Asset Relief Program, announced in a statement Friday.

The men started several fraudulent businesses between January 2009 and March 2012, promising homeowners they could secure loan modifications for an upfront fee that was refundable if no help was obtained. The men simply kept the money and didn’t get loan modifications, the statement said.

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The National Association of Real Estate Brokers, Inc. (NAREB) announced the launch of a 25-city, $1.2 billion REO and foreclosure mitigation initiative called the Homeowner’s Assurance Program (HAP).

The program is designed to address the devastating effects of foreclosures on communities across America. HAP is a non-governmental, industry-led solution to the nation’s housing crisis.

NAREB was formed in 1947 by African American real estate professionals and is the oldest minority trade group in the United States. The organization has a vast network of industry professionals including: Realtists, brokers, sales agents, appraisers, mortgage brokers, and loan officers as well as practical experts in pre- and post-counseling, loss mitigation, foreclosure, property management, housing construction, and development.

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Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s recent extension of forbearance programs will give short-term aid to unemployed homeowners, but housing counselors warn that these borrowers will need to look at longer-term solutions. In a forbearance program, a lender agrees not to foreclose on a property and gives a borrower several months’ grace from or reduction in monthly mortgage payments. The programs work best for temporary setbacks, like job loss, health problems or natural disasters. Click to read more

These have been tough years for the Cohen family. Suffice to say that fiscal Armageddon hit after they had lived in their Yorba Linda home for 18 years.

They fell behind on the house payments.

There were many conversations with the lender, Bank of America. And last spring, when the bank’s patience was running low and the family’s fiscal fortunes hadn’t changed, the Cohens put the home where they raised their two daughters up for sale, hoping to head off foreclosure.

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