There's been a lot of buzz about government-sponsored initiatives to help save homeowners from the prospect of looming foreclosure. Unfortunately, the initiatives have proven to offer more hype than hope; at last count, according to CNBC's Diana Olick, the FHA Secure program had managed to write between 299 and 600 loans. In a quarter when RealtyTrac reported that over 600,000 foreclosure filings were issued, that doesn't even qualify as a very small drop in a very large bucket.

Meanwhile, the question is constantly asked: Are the lenders doing anything to help solve the problem? And Countrywide, largely believed to be the single biggest issuer of the dreaded sub-prime ARM loans, has been the press's favorite target. Which makes today's press release from the once high-flying company very interesting.

According to the release, Countrywide has re-worked nearly 81,000 loans in 2007, with over 61% of these loans being modified (banker-speak for "we changed the terms of the loan so that the homeowner could afford the payments"). Now I know that press releases need to be viewed for what they are, and I'm not suggesting that we erect statues of Angelo Mozilo in town squares across the country. But for people yearning for substantive results instead of politically-pleasing platitudes, 81,000 seems to be a lot more attractive a number than 600.

What might be a really interesting undertaking would be for the lenders and loan servicers who are having some success in home retention activities to compare notes and share some of the tactics that are working best. The problem we're facing was created in large part -although not exclusively - by the mortgage industry itself; the most likely solutions - working solutions - will probably come from this group as well.

If anyone knows of other lenders having success in helping homeowners stay in their homes, I'd love to hear about it.