Our economy, particularly the housing industry, has been deeply badgered by large amounts of job losses, foreclosures and home values being decimated as if by overnight.

The bitter truths have shown that a meager 4 percent of homeowners on a national basis that faced foreclosure within the last year did receive mortgage assistance.

This has made the Obama administration to look continuously for a solution for the remaining 96 percent of homeowners already in foreclosure. This obviously doesn’t include future foreclosure victims in 2010 and 2011.

Statistics show that nearly 2 million housing units in the United States are in foreclosure or are bank-owned, and more are expected to follow, according to RealtyTrac.

Citigroup experts say the government’s current solutions have been ineffective at keeping people in their homes, and they anticipate lenders could foreclose on another 8 million loans as the economy worsens.

What does this have to do with short sales? Well, according to the National Association of Realtors, approximately 500,000 transactions in 2009 were short sales which represented almost 10 percent of all home sales.

Not surprising is the attitude adjustment from banks who are beginning to go along with short sales in increasing numbers, Bloomberg.com says.

The St. Louis Refinancing Group and the local lending community also reported that short sales almost tripled by 40,000 in the first 2 quarters of 2009 compared to the same time frame in 2008.

The Office of Thrift Supervision and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency seems to feel that in reality there were 25 foreclosures started or completed for each short sale filed and completed.

“It’s really finally dawning on banks that they’re better off with a short sale,” said Richard Green, director of the Lusk Center for Real Estate at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Mr. Green continues: “I think banks were in denial.”

What the average consumer doesn’t realize is that there are definite benefits in doing a short sale. First they remain in control of the sale and ultimately spare themselves the social stigma of going through a foreclosure.

And if your mortgage payments were never 30 days late and the lender didn’t require you to pay back the loan, you would be allowed to purchase a future home after said short sale occurred according to Fannie Mae guidelines either immediately or after a waiting period of no more than 3 years.

The worst case scenario involving a short sale is if you were behind on your mortgage payment by 30 days or more, you and your family may indeed qualify to buy a future Fannie Mae backed mortgage possibly within two years.

But what if you were a victim of foreclosure? Do not despair. Even with restrictions in place, you may qualify to by another home within 5 years and if there’s no restrictions in place, within 7 years.

Finally, for those investors out there where this house is not their primary residence, your wait would be 7 years according to Fannie Mae’s guidelines.

The market is changing mainly brought on by political pressure. Hence, the Obama administration is now advocating short sales as an alternative to imminent foreclosure.

The Treasury Department has taken steps towards finalizing guidelines employing the use of short sales under the Making Homes Affordable program.

The administration has also appealed to participating servicers under the new Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternative (HAFA) program to embrace the short sale as a substitute to foreclosure.

The HAFA program was a vital implementation for current homeowners that did not qualify for loan modifications under the Home Affordable Modification Program also known as HAMP.

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