Bush v. Reality
Rotten has a good piece up about the effect of the subprime crisis in Rochester.  It jibes with what we’re hearing elsewhere about this locally — that, while there was no housing bubble, the city definitely getting hit.
Meanwhile, here’s what the Bush administration’s been up to on his issue (from a Washington Post piece on disgraced Bush HUD chief Alphonso Jackson):
In late 2006, as economists warned of an imminent housing market collapse, housing Secretary Alphonso Jackson repeatedly insisted that the mounting wave of mortgage failures was a short-term “correction.”
He pushed for legislation that would make it easier for federally backed lenders to make mortgage loans to risky borrowers who put less money down. He issued a rule that was criticized by law enforcement authorities because it could increase the difficulty of detecting and proving mortgage fraud.
[...]
In speeches, he urged loosening some rules to spur more home buying and borrowing. “I’m convinced this spring we will see the market again begin to soar,” Jackson said in a June 2007 speech at the National Press Club to kick off what HUD dubbed “National Homeownership Month.” He also told the audience that he had no specific laws to recommend to prevent a repeat of the lending abuses that caused the mortgage crisis.
[....]
“If all of the regulators, including HUD, had looked specifically at mortgage fraud, looking at fair lending and fair housing in a more proactive way, the crisis might have not been as bad,” (David) Berenbaum (executive vice president at the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, an association working to prevent foreclosures and abusive lending) said.
No comments yet.