$26B mortgage deal: Who benefits?

Big news from the mortgage and foreclosure crisis: government officials tell CBS News a historic settlement will be announced Thursday that could affect nearly two million homeowners.

The $26 billion deal involves 49 states - every state except Oklahoma - and some of America's biggest banks: Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citibank and Ally Financial.

Learn more about the settlement

Officials hope the deal will stem the tide of falling housing prices and foreclosures. It targets two groups: underwater homeowners - people who have homes that are less in value than the cost of their mortgage. Those individuals, about a million of them, will see principle reduction as a part of this deal.

The other group are those who have already lost their homes to foreclosure. About 750,000 of them will see a payout, though it may be as little as $2,000.

What do the banks get out of this? The banks get out of lawsuits involving robo-signing practices, where homeowners were evicted without banks going through the proper paperwork.

"60 Minutes": Mortgage paperwork mess: Next housing shock?

Analysts tell Rebecca Jarvis taht was a big reason the banks signed onto this settlement - because they thought they could be facing multiples of billions of dollars in lawsuits down the road for those practices.

In the video above, Jarvis talks about what happens if your mortgage is owned by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, and what it means for the nation's big banks.