TheBakersfieldCalifornian.com

A historic settlement between 49 states and the nation's largest mortgage lenders could mean about $374.5 million for Kern County homeowners affected by the region's foreclosure avalanche, according to the California Attorney General's Office.

On Thursday, California announced it had reached an agreement to join a multistate settlement to penalize mortgage servicing and foreclosure abuses.

The money will be used to, among other things, reduce the principal on loans or offer short sales to homeowners who owe more than their homes are worth; as well as modify the payments on loans of homeowners who are under water.

"Any help that people can get at this point would be great," said Scott Tobias, president of the Bakersfield Association of Realtors.

But he's not celebrating just yet.

"A lot depends on how the money is distributed," he said.

Matt Perry, president of the Central Valley chapter of the California Association of Mortgage Professionals, said he wasn't sure it was enough money to really make a difference.

"When you think of it in terms of the average loan volume in the state being $2 trillion, I don't think it's going to help very much," he said.

Kern is among the California counties the housing crisis has hit the hardest. Although the number of people losing their homes is falling from the peak of the recession, it continues to hinder the housing market recovery.

Kern had 421 foreclosures in January, down from 400 in December and 587 a year earlier.

Nearly half of all mortgaged homes in the Bakersfield-Delano market are under water, according to real estate data firm CoreLogic.

Almost 48 percent of all local homes with mortgages -- or 72,353 residences -- had negative equity in the third quarter of last year, compared with 48.6 percent, or 73,767 properties, in the second quarter of 2011.

An additional 5.8 percent, or 8,790 residences, were very close to under water in the third quarter.

Although Kern's situation is extreme, there is at least some level of strain on homeowners across the country.

The Obama Administration has floated several programs over the years to deal with that, but to date they've hardly made a dent in the problem.

That's why Gail Malouf, a broker associate with Coldwell Banker Preferred in Bakersfield, is hopeful but not exactly jubilant about the settlement.

"Our short sales are a little easier than they used to be so I do think the banks are trying," she said. "But there are still an awful lot of people who need help and aren't getting it, and as we all know the government makes decisions and we never really know how they're going to affect anybody."

A short sale is an agreement between a lender and a seller to put a home on the market for less than the balance of the mortgage.

Malouf said she'd like to see far more under water homeowners get some relief.

"It would be so much better if the banks would really work with people," she said. "Until the loans are more in line with what the value of the house is, we're never going to get anywhere. We've got a long road ahead of us."