More financially stressed homeowners in Massachusetts and across the country are getting mortgage loan modifications that cut their payments enough to keep them from falling into foreclosure, according to federal data and local housing specialists.

About 70 percent of the nearly 448,000 US homeowners who received mortgage help from lenders during the first nine months of 2011 are still up to date on their mortgages, according to the report by the federal Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. That compares with an on-time payment rate of 37 percent for homeowners who received loan modifications in 2009, according to the report.

The improving success rate for modifications comes as banks are under mounting pressure from federal and state officials to offer real relief to borrowers in danger of losing their homes. Although lenders prefer not to make any loan concessions, they also are increasingly interested in avoiding more foreclosures, which have hurt their profits in recent years.

John Rao, staff attorney with the National Consumer Law Center, a nonprofit based in Boston, said the better numbers show that people who owe more than their homes are worth do not necessarily walk away from obligations.

‘‘It proves the point if you can provide homeowners with an affordable payment, they will pay it,’’ Rao said.

Modifications typically incorporate interest rate cuts, term extensions, principal deferral, and — less frequently — debt reductions.

Bryan Hubbard, spokesman for the Office of the Comptroller, said the rate of on-time payments has steadily improved as banks, pushed by regulators, have become agreeable to providing assistance that is more substantive than symbolic. Today, Hubbard said many modifications ‘‘significantly reduce monthly principal and payments.’’