After two years of declining home prices and rising foreclosures, Capitol Hill is finally churning out proposals that are – nominally at least – aimed at dealing with the Great American Mortgage Crisis.
But if a bill that came out of the Senate last week is any indication, it seems that our friends in Washington are much more interested in helping out the businesses that created the mess than distressed homeowners who are frantically trying to pay their bills before their homes get taken away from them.
In a compromise to gain Republican support for the proposal (the Republicans also pushed for the tax breaks), the Senate agreed to slash that proposal to $4 billion – $2 billion less than the tax break for corporations. And that's bad news for places like San Diego County, which have been hoping for government funding to cope with the rising wave of foreclosures.
“Four billion dollars is not going to do a whole lot,” said Norm Miller, real estate specialist at the University of San Diego.
“I hate to say it, but this proposal seems more like public relations than an actual attempt at a solution,” said Timothy A. Canova, who teaches international economic law at Chapman University in Orange.
Canova said the land bank program and a $10 billion program to establish a bond authority to refinance subprime mortgages were the only pieces of the proposal that seemed directly aimed at resolving the crisis – and they're woefully inadequate.
If you would like to read this entire story, please visit: http://www.paradigmshiftpr.com/media/placements/landbank.htm
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