Is Stimulas Package California's Life Saver?

The Details of the Stimulus Package are unfolding.
Ok, so after all the buzz, the details are finally coming out and so far it's not that exciting. We are recovering from a market in the Bay Area that was so inflated, with home owners realising appreciating values in excess of 15% per year, to a market in which we see values falling at a rate of 2%+ per month over the past 14 months. The message of the stimulus package is a good one but when we are faced with home values that are $200K below the loan amount on the home, there is only so much money to go around. This is probably not the remedy for California homeowners. Thus far, the stimulus package is focused on homeowners that are 5% underwater on their loan to value. The other piece of the package sounds great, but again, there is only so much cash to go around; the fed is putting the onus on banks to reduce homeowners' mortgages to a level of 31% of their income. The ideal formula, and what was always a safe rule of thumb but difficult to acheive in our fair state, is that your homeownership expense should equal 25% of your income. And of course, there is a Santa Claus too! But here is a gem that might be helpful. If you have missed a payment or are struggling, many loan notes contain a boiler plate requirment that the lender modify the note in favor of the borrower should there be a danger of default. Your lender, a business, may not always bring this to your attention, but check it out if you are in this situation. Freddie and Fannie have required such verbage in loans for years but most of us have not experienced this market, therefore, we have never had to take advantage of this stipulation. So there is some sizzle apart from the stimulus package. The good news in all of this is that at least the government and country are moving in a better direction to help with this crisis. As there is no such thing as a National Housing Market, there is probably not going to be one package to fix all the woes, but it's a start and hopefully will lead to some local legislation that will actually be effective.