AC

About 12% of eligible borrowers have begun trial modifications of their mortgages since the start of a $75 billion federal program to rework home loans into more affordable monthly payments, the Treasury Department reported Wednesday. Since the program's launch in March, 360,165 borrowers had received three-month trial modifications through August. If they keep up their payments for the trial period, lenders are supposed to extend the modifications for five years. Lenders have offered trial modifications to 571,354 borrowers, or about 15% of those eligible, since March, but not all have enrolled. Some economists say they're doubtful that the administration's goals are realistic, given the current pace of modification activity. "It's still a slow ramping up," says Mark Zandi, at Moody's Economy.com. "It's much improved from earlier in the summer, and servicers are better staffed. But it's slow going compared to the serious delinquencies and foreclosures that continue to...