People who work in the Valley's mortgage industry will have all eyes on President Barack Obama as he unveils his plan to stem foreclosures during a speech in Mesa on Wednesday.

Kelly Zitlow of Suburban Mortgage has an idea what the president will talk about.

"From what we understand, Obama is going to talk about loan modifications and creating some consistency among the banks with regard to loan modifications," Zitlow said.

Some changes in the banking system are crucial, according to Zitlow.

"He needs to encourage the banks to come up with something other than the system that they have because it's not effective, it's not working. I talk to homeowners every single day who are getting nowhere with their banks. And they have nowhere else to turn except to walk away from these houses."

The real estate industry is based on supply and demand, and foreclosures are creating too much supply in the housing housing market, Zitlow said.

"We need to stop the supply from coming back into the market, which is controlling the foreclosure problem, and you do that with loan modifications or other stimulus... We can do it with some type of tax credit that is not just for first-time home buyers. And we really do it by creating less supply and eating up some of that that's out there on the market today."

Zitlow added, "We need a stronger effort to help this housing market move forward. The $8,000 tax credit in the stimulus package for first-time home buyers isn't going to do it."

She would like to see the tax credit available to anyone who buys a home, not just first-time buyers.

Is the Valley's mortgage crisis as bad as it seems?

Yes, said Dean Wegner, mortgage originator at American Financial Lending in Phoenix.

"It's definitely as bad as it sounds, especially in Phoenix. We went from No. 2 in job growth to No. 48 in job growth, so we went from a boom town to a bust town. Eighty percent of our economy revolves around real estate and that sector of the economy has just been wiped off the planet Earth. Yes, we are struggling."

Wegner said one-third of Americans are upside down in their homes, have lost their jobs or all of their money. He said another third are doing okay, but living paycheck to paycheck, while the remainder are financially in good shape, but concerned about their future.

The foreclosure crisis is getting consistently worse, according to Wegner.

"In '06, we had a thousand foreclosures, in '07, we had 5,000 foreclosures, in '08, we had close to 50,000 and this year we're on track for 150,000 foreclosures."

Wegner said unless something is done, Americans are going to unite as one and demand that something be done at the government level.