Short sales are gaining traction among lenders because of a new federal incentive. In essence, the government has agreed to absorb a part of the loss that a bank sustains whenever they do a short sale.

"In May, the Treasury Department said it would offer a streamlined framework for short sales and incentive payments of $1,500 to homeowners, $1,000 to loan servicers and $1,000 to second-lien holders," The San Francisco Chronicle reports.

Just 18 months ago, the term "short sale" was not widely known. Today, it's gaining some currency as more and more short sales get done, but it's still a misunderstood concept.

Short sales are when you need to get out of a house and you get the lender to agree to take market value on the sale -- instead of what you actually owe on it. You'll take a hit of about 120 or 130 points on your credit score for doing one.

Are banks doing this as a charity effort? No, it's cheaper for them to do a short sale versus a foreclosure. Some of the biggest lenders now have "war rooms" with specialists to process short sales. Certain lenders even take requests for short sales electronically nowadays.

Our associate producer Joel started looking to buy a home last winter. He immediately began honing in on short sales, much to Clark's dismay. The consumer champ knew that banks were notoriously incompetent when it came to processing short sales.

Naturally, Clark urged Joel to steer clear of them. But being a young man, Joel completely ignored Clark! So much of the market was short sales that it would have been very hard to ignore them in his search.

Joel was right in this case; he bought a short sale for $89,000 with a 15-year loan at 4.375 percent. The property had last sold for $155,000. So his patience was rewarded, but it took the better part of a year. And that's now made Clark himself reconsider the short sale as a viable option for struggling homeowners. It's for real this time!