Foreclosure is a stressful experience that far too many Nevada residents are familiar with. Often those who experience foreclosure are also facing the potential of a personal bankruptcy. There are many alternatives to foreclosure and bankruptcy, and an experienced Nevada bankruptcy attorney can help Nevada residents review their options and decide what the best next steps should be for their particular situation.

Foreclosure mediation is one option for Las Vegas homeowners. The U.S. Justice Department recently lauded Nevada's Foreclosure Mediation Program as a model for similar initiatives across the country. The program became an example of best practices for state mediation programs after the deputy director in charge of the program took part in a panel hosted by the Department of Justice's Access Justice Initiative. The deputy director's participation spurred interest in Nevada's program and federal housing advocates were pleased by what they found.

"As one of the first statewide non-judicial foreclosure mediation programs, we felt it important to develop a model that could easily be duplicated by other programs," said the program's deputy director. "As we built our program, we engaged other state programs to glean viable information and to share our successes and challenges."

The Nevada program was created in 2009 and had helped around 12,000 people avoid foreclosure. Just under 4,000 participants avoided foreclosure through loan modifications and about 2,000 homeowners agreed to foreclosure alternatives such as short sales. A short sale is a foreclosure alternative in which a bank agrees to sell a home and use whatever it can get for the home to satisfy the mortgage amount.

Source: KTVN, "State Foreclosure Mediation Program Gets National Recognition," Jan. 27, 2012