[avacado]

"Housing Bust Offers Insights"

It sure does! It means I can protest my home's apprisal value and get my property taxes lowered again this year! Whoooo-hoooo!!

[DB]

The federal government buying foreclosed houses and renting them back to people is not the answer.

It will become just another public funds black hole.

Government provided housing always gets destroyed and is worth essentially nothing after a dozen years or so.

And if you really want to look at why houses are so unaffordable, start with local government and expand out... Endless regulation and fees along with dollars that are worth significantly less year after year.

[RegulatorCountry]

Without widespread speculative excess, the problem would not be so daunting, so it’s not entirely due to attempted social engineering. Of course, the relaxed lending standards themselves fuelled the speculation, so maybe that’s a moot point.

[Ann Archy]

Republicans THINK that MOST people are SMART ........Democrats KNOW that MOST people are STUPID. THAT is the big difference between the parties.

[Rational Thought]

One theme I keep hearing repeated is who's to blame? Once again, David Wessel follows the heard and blames the Mortgage Broker. The last time I checked, the Mortgage Broker originates the loan. They require a lending source to underwrite, approve and fund the loan. In addition, did these lending sources not employ their own originators? Funny, I must be the only one on earth who applies for a home loan directly at my bank.

This blame game reflects just how powerful these lending institutions truly are...place the blame on Mortgage Brokers and assume no responsibility.

This is like blaming the Army soldier for loosing the war in Vietnam.

[NonValueAdded]

One option is to require lenders to offer everyone a standard 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage and then allow lender and borrower to "opt out" for another loan, perhaps requiring extra disclosures or imposing penalties on lenders who make loans that later prove inappropriate.

Jeez, all that means is more paperwork to get to the same place. We already disclose out the wazoo. IT DOESN'T WORK. The problem buyers were publik-skool educated. They'll sign whatever they're told to sign and not worry about all that "gobbledegook that no one can understand" (as the real estate agent will advise them). And what they'll learn from the current "crisis" is that it won't matter - someone will fix the problem for them in return for their vote.