Mitt Romney says we should speed up forclosures
The foreclosure crisis has been a huge drag on the economy since the economic collapse of 2008. Warren Buffett has explained that we won’t have an economic recovery until we have a housing recovery.
One of the controversies, however, involves bad practices by the banks, and whether consumers should get a break in the face of this misconduct.
Mitt Romney apparently doesn’t think so, as he is arguing in Las Vegas that foreclosures should speed up.
“Don’t try to stop the foreclosure process. Let it run its course and hit the bottom,” Romney said when asked by the Las Vegas Review-Journal what he would do to jump-start the floundering housing market. “Allow investors to buy homes, put renters in them, fix the homes up and let it turn around and come back up.”
The administration, Romney said, “has slow walked the foreclosure process … that has long existed and as a result we still have a foreclosure overhang.” Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto sued Bank of America in August, accusing it of foreclosing on homes without proper authority. Nevada is beset by economic turmoil and foreclosures. Last year, one in nine Las Vegas homes received a foreclosure notice.
On pure economic terms he has a point, but he seems to ignore how millions of American were screwed over by the banks. Yes, many home buyers made mistakes, yet it’s clear that the banks were jamming through mortgages just to rack up fees.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
Posted in: Personal Finance, Real Estate
Tags: collapsing home prices, collapsing real estate prices, foreclosure controversy, foreclosure crisis, foreclosure problem, foreclosures, home buyers, home foreclosures, home loans, home mortgage, home ownership, home prices, housing industry, housing recovery, housing sector, Mitt Romney, mortgage loans, mortgage payments, mortgage rates, mortgages, real estate foreclosures, real estate industry, real estate prices, stopping foreclosures, Warren Buffett