When the recession struck hard, it left millions of families not knowing how to pay their mortgage. With jobs being lost and wages being cut, many families were having a hard time even keeping up to their basic expenses and couldn’t possible pay their mortgages. Many of these families consequently lost their homes to foreclosure. In 2008, the foreclosure rate went up by just over 80% from 2007 and in 2009, the foreclosures continued to mount. This was the year that Obama’s administration decided to take action. They implemented Obama mortgage loan modification program that would allow people who took out a loan before January 1, 2009, who also fulfilled other requirements, to apply to have their loans modified.