Mortgage deliquents in Philadelphia get reprieves -- and may get more

For those falling behind in their mortgage payments and other home bills, Philadelphia looks like the place to be, at least on the surface.

A special program requiring banks to sit down face-to-face with delinquent borrowers at the courthouse before they foreclose on their homes recently reached its one-year anniversary with an estimated 5,700 homeowners helped, 1,400 of whom were temporarily saved from foreclosure.

And now the city council is considering an amnesty for penalties related to past-due property taxes and perhaps water bills, to give low-income residents some temporary relief.