Late Thursday, it leaked that the Obama administration is planning to broaden its foreclosure prevent program. The details, however, remain somewhat unclear. At this point, we know the new initiatives will include principal reduction and payment deferrals to help Americans who are unemployed, underwater or have second liens avoid foreclosure. When the details are revealed on Friday, here are some questions to ask:

How will payments be deferred or shrunk for the unemployed?

For quite a while now, the subprime mortgages haven't been the big problem: unemployment has. Even if you're a prime borrower, it can be hard to pay your mortgage if you lose your income. From what we know, the Treasury will allow some unemployed Americans to defer or shrink their monthly payments for several months.

Will the government be footing the bill for these altered payments or have banks agreed to temporarily defer or shrink them? Obviously, the latter would be fantastic news for both borrowers and taxpayers. Also, what if the borrower still doesn't have a job once the deferral period expires?

How much funding will be provided for principal reductions on underwater mortgages?*

The median home price for existing homes is $165,100, according to the National Association of Realtors. Let's say the average struggling underwater borrower has a loan-to-value ratio of 130%, which isn't outlandish. If you use that average home price and the 115% LTV the program will use, then the underwater borrowers will have a mortgage of about $215,000 reduced to $190,000. So the banks will have to post a $25,000 loss per modification. The government will need to make it worth their while to reduce principal and take the associated losses immediately. They may want to cover at least 20%, which would be $5,000.