If you've got a 7% adjustable mortgage that's about to skyrocket past 10%, getting a break may get a lot easier. One solution to the foreclosure problem gaining traction would freeze rates at lower levels.

The Hope Now Alliance, a coalition of lenders, servicers, investors and community groups, put together by the Treasury Department, is working on a version of a freeze that could be annouced this week.

Lenders quietly began offering such freezes during the summer. Last week California officials announced a rate-freeze deal with four major lenders.

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How many will be affected? The estimated number of loans affected proposed plan will be between 145,000 and 360,000.

Which adjustable-rate mortgages are affected? To qualify to have their interest rate frozen for five years, home owners must have received a loan sometime between Jan. 1, 2005, and July 31, 2007, and be facing a reset of their interest rate sometime between Jan. 1, 2008, and July 31, 2010.

Who qualifies for this deal? Home owners who haven't missed a payment, but who might if their mortgage resets. Those who can't afford the higher payments, and who have credit scores below 660 and less than 3 percent equity in their homes, will get the biggest break from the lenders. People who are financially secure enough to pay the higher mortgage payments don't qualify.

Do owners of second homes or investors qualify? No. The plan excludes people who don't live in the property that's facing foreclosure.