More Developments: Is the End of the Foreclosure process in Sight?

About 2.9 million households are 90 days or more behind on payments, but not yet in foreclosure, nearly triple the total of two years ago, according to LPS Applied Analytics, a data provider. On average, those households are nine months behind on payments.

There is no guarantee that the number of households newly behind on payments will continue to shrink. LPS, which uses separate data from lenders, estimated that 3.4% of borrowers were 30 to 59 days behind in January, up slightly from 3.3% in December.

The default problem is largely concentrated in states hit hardest by falling home prices—Arizona, California, Florida, Nevada and Michigan. Those are the states that are designated to get portions of the latest $1.5 billion federal program, dubbed Help for the Hardest-Hit Housing Markets.

Those funds will be awarded to state and local housing-finance agencies that propose programs meet federal criteria. The money is to be spent helping unemployed homeowners and those whose home values have dropped far below the amount they owe on their mortgages.The administration said the agencies "may experiment with programs that would assist borrowers to negotiate with lenders to write down mortgages."

The money also can be used to help resolve problems arising from home-equity loans and other second-lien mortgages; in such cases, conflicts between the holders of the first- and second-lien mortgage often stymie efforts to work out a plan to lower payments. In addition, the funds could go to "other programs encouraging sustainable and affordable homeownership," the administration said.

The funds will come from the federal Troubled Asset Relief Program. Administration officials said they believed state and local housing agencies could design relief programs tailored to local needs.

The new program is the latest in a wide array of federal efforts to prop up the housing market, including the $47 billion Home Affordable Modification Program, known as HAMP, which gives lenders incentives to reduce payments for struggling borrowers. That program, launched a year ago, is often criticized for failing to do enough for people who have lost their jobs or owe far more than the current value of their homes.