President Obama announced the Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan today.

Under the plan, many homeowners whose loan-to-value ratio was previously too high to refinance will now become eligible to refinance their homes at the current low rates.  The plan will also reduce foreclosures and provide transitional help for those who are facing difficulty making their payments.  

Read here for more details, Q&A and some housing example situations.  Mortgage lenders will start accepting applications after more details of the program are announced on March 4th.

There seems to be a lot of thought put into the plan (e.g., not providing assistance to speculators or flippers).  It's probably the most direct effort to stem the bleeding in housing markets we've seen since this whole thing started turning south.

Now we've got a stimulus and a housing plan.  Still need to work on those zombie banks but definitely a take-charge start for Obama's first month at work…