Tag: Housing

Banks that received government bailout money are taking heat for spending billions of dollars on bonuses, executive pay and lavish outings. But there’s another outrage that Washington seems to be missing: the growing number of bank-owned properties in foreclosure scarring neighborhoods across the country.

Nearly 202,000 Colorado homeowners are expected to go into foreclosure by 2013, according to a report by the Center for Responsible Lending, with 60,640 foreclosures taking place just this year. The hardest hit district? Doug Lamborn's CD 5 — the home of the Ronald Reagan Memorial Highway and conservative epicenter of personal responsibility.

Still not convinced of the need for a mortgage rescue plan? Read more about foreclosure issues in Colorado.

While packed with carrots encouraging mortgage lenders to modify troubled loans, President Barack Obama’s plan to stem the foreclosure crisis still awaits its stick: the empowerment of bankruptcy judges to alter the terms of primary mortgages.

Douglas McIntyre at TIME complains that President Barack Obama's housing stimulus plan will keep struggling homeowners in modified mortgages for ultimately valueless homes effectively making them renters. But I ask: When are Americans going to accept responsibility for the risks inherent in making financial investments, including homeownership? Why is that Obama's fault? Add your comments below the fold.

Everyone knows about the crisis facing homeowners. But what about those who can't afford a home? Colorado is excepted to scoop up nearly $61 million in federal stimulus funds to build and renovate public housing, weatherize public and low-income housing, and provide Section 8 and energy assistance vouchers to poor families. But is it too little too late?

As the Obama administration launches a new bank rescue plan and prepares to overhaul the financial regulatory system, lawmakers will look closely at the lending practices of major banks and mortgage firms. But some think they also should probe the government-chartered Federal Home Loan Banks, which served as lenders of last resort as the credit crunch intensified — propping up the very banks that made the kind of risky mortgages that led to the housing crisis in the first place.

Should city leaders go back to the future for inspiration in revising Denver's 52-year-old zoning codes?

Can we forget the simplistic shovel-ready dogma already and get to work on evangelizing a new master-planned housing mantra to reclaim our communities with the pending federal cash infusion? Recent stories in the New York Times and New West.com offer some tantalizing ideas on how to transform suburban subdivisions and big-box retail spaces hit hard in the economic downturn.

Economic hard times may have prompted an unintended positive effect — curbing the temptation to tear down older houses to build monster-sized new homes in desirable city neighborhoods, so says a Christian Science Monitor story.