Foreclosure An Issue In The Presidential Race
Barbara Anderson of Cleveland is very specific in her choice of presidential candidate after having lost her house to foreclosures few year ago. She is not interested in the fate of Wall Street – she wants a president who will see to her house, her city and her mortgage interests. She loves her Main Street much more than Walls Street. This is the mood of the majority of voters in the Ohio region, either directly or indirectly hit by foreclosures as they listen to the oratorical renderings of Clinton and Obama. Ohio is plagued with the foreclosure curse – a 88% increase from 2006. Only California and Florida ranked higher in ranking.
Clinton is talking about freezing rates and a 90 day moratorium. She is also talking about $30 billion pool to help local administration struggling with foreclosure fall outs. Obama is discussing the creation of a $10 billion fund for preventing foreclosures and is critical about Clinton’s plan because it will make it difficult for ordinary people to avail of mortgage loans to buy houses. He wants a change in bankruptcy laws. On the Republican side McCain is avoiding the solution and talking about penalizing ‘greedy speculators’.
The Bush administration Hope Now operations is extended with another one named Project Lifeline. A five year freeze has been put on certain types of sub-prime mortgages. Six mortgage giants backed Bush for holding in abeyance for a month all foreclosures while talks would be thrashed out. The Mortgage Bankers Association backs Bush but is not ready as yet to whole heartedly support the presidential candidate.
Looking at the explosive figures of foreclosures, Cuyahoga County Treasurer Jim Rokakis, a Democrat, refers to the efforts of the Bush administration as ‘useless political gestures.’ He feels that the call of the hour is an indefinite moratorium on foreclosures. With nearly 12,000 abandoned and decaying houses Cleveland requires a urban Marshall Plan. These houses will not magically vanish by themselves.
Jeffrey Dillman of Cleveland’s Housing Research and Advocacy Center says that credit regulations should be modified so that the modest income group can avail of proper mortgages. Right now all the tax and other benefits go to the rich. Freezing will not help all. One criticism leveled against Obama is that his plans about bankruptcy will help only the lenders. Nobody is coming up with remedies but only with temporary pain killers.
