The coming homeowner bailout
A couple recent studies suggest the worst may be over with foreclosures.
First Chicago-based credit bureau TransUnion predicts a fall in foreclosure rates in the first quarter in Massachusetts as unemployment starts to come down.
Now comes along RealtyTrac, which is reporting the latest in a series of month over month declines in foreclosure activity since hitting a record peak over the summer.
While the Bay State has avoided the full-brunt of the foreclosure mess, don’t be fooled, for this is a national problem and it’s not going away so fast.
For while some of the experts may be breathing easier, others are calling for a big bank style bailout aimed at rescuing struggling homeowners.
In case you missed it, Elizabeth Warren, the Harvard Law School professor and influential economic adviser, is hitting the airwaves to push the bailout idea.
Warren contends we still haven’t gotten to the core of our current economic malaise, the struggling homeowner and consumer, and that, unless we do, we could be facing more tough times ahead.
Basically, we all need to suck it up like we did with the big banks and fork over the billions needed to bail out homeowners, she argued Wednesday on WBUR’s On Point.
Of course, Warren is playing now to a much bigger stage than just WBUR listeners.
The Harvard professor is back in the news, having chaired a watchdog panel appointed by Congress a year ago to oversee the $700 billion TARP effort to rescue the financial system and deal with a host of other economic challenges as well.
The panel just released its report down in Washington – and it’s far from the kind of happy talk now coming out of the Obama Administration about the economy.
The bailout effort has been mixed at best, according to the report, with everything from ongoing bank failures to mounting job losses and foreclosures.
And in particular, a much touted effort by the Obama Administration to rescue struggling homeowners by paying lenders to modify loans has failed, and failed miserably, Warren’s report concludes.
Does that mean it’s time to ante up for a homeowner bailout?
I am not there yet. But don’t believe the happy talk because the worst may not be over when it comes to the foreclosure mess.
