Feb. 13 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama will give more details on his proposals to deal with the housing crisis with a speech next week in Arizona, his spokesman said.

Obama expects to sign the $787 billion stimulus law on Feb. 16 or 17, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said, and then will make a two-day trip to Denver and Phoenix to talk about the next steps in his strategy to revive the U.S. economy.

The president will “outline a plan to stem home foreclosures” in an address on Feb. 18 in Arizona, Gibbs said at his regular briefing for reporters. He refused to give details.

Obama has said his advisers are working on a plan to address declining home prices and a rising tide of foreclosures. Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Morgan Stanley, Bank of America Corp. and Wells Fargo & Co. have agreed to suspend foreclosures until next month while the administration crafts a plan to modify mortgages for troubled borrowers.

Gibbs said the action by the institutions is “consistent with” what Obama believes should be part of the housing policy.

Lawrence Summers, the president’s top economic adviser, said today that the administration intends to focus its efforts on reducing monthly mortgage payments rather than principal.

Addressing Affordability

“Going directly at the problem means addressing affordability by addressing payments,” Summers said in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital with Al Hunt,” scheduled to air this weekend. That will have a “substantial” impact on foreclosure rates.

U.S. foreclosures reached 274,399 in January, the 10th straight month in which more than a quarter-million filings were processed, RealtyTrac Inc., the Irvine, California-based provider of real estate data, said in a statement yesterday.

Obama will lay out his plans in Arizona, which had the third-highest rate of foreclosures in January -- one in 182 housing units -- after Nevada and California.

Obama’s plan is intended “to ensure that the 10,000 Americans each day that have their homes foreclosed on and the millions more that are barely getting by are protected,” Gibbs said. The amount of aid likely will be in line with previous administration statements, he said.

Pledge

Obama has pledged to commit money toward housing relief, using $50 billion to $100 billion from the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program enacted last year.

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan said in a speech today in New York that the administration wants to accelerate loan modifications for distressed homeowners and change the bankruptcy system for foreclosures.

One proposal involves using government money to subsidize interest-rate reductions for struggling borrowers, according to a person briefed on the discussions.

The House passed the stimulus legislation 246 to 183 as Gibbs was speaking. The Senate is set to follow with final passage this evening. Because of paperwork that needs to be done, the legislation likely will reach the president’s desk “no earlier than Monday,” Gibbs said.

Obama has said the stimulus is one part of his strategy for the economy, the others being action to stabilize the housing market and a strategy to shore up the financial industry.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner already has announced a plan to inject fresh government capital into some of the nation’s biggest financial institutions, establish a public- private partnership to buy as much as $1 trillion of banks’ bad assets and start a credit facility with the Federal Reserve of as much as $1 trillion to promote lending to consumers and businesses.

After his trips to Colorado and Arizona, Obama plans his first journey as president outside U.S. borders with a visit to Canada. Gibbs said the economy will be a major topic. In April, Obama will make stops in Europe around a North Atlantic Treaty Organization conference and a meeting of the Group of 20 industrialized and developing countries, Gibbs said.

To contact the reporters on this story: Roger Runningen in Washington at rrunningen@bloomberg.net; Kristin Jensen in Washington at kjensen@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: February 13, 2009 18:10 EST