[Nifster]

I know that the term red headed step child is very specific and has a long and cherished history....Since we live in PC times I want to say how OFFENDED I am since my own (by birth) child is a red head....

Been waiting to say that for some time. ;)

[oldbrowser]

Had the housing market been left alone to self-correct we could be well on the way to recovery.

My theory is the economy will always self-correct. But the government is spending trillions trying to re-inflate the bubble that the self-correcting economy is trying to deflate back to it's sustainable norm.

The laws of economics will always prevail.

[Carry_Okie]

Order banks to release the shadow inventory of millions of homes being held back from the market. Yes that will drive down prices, however only until the inventory is absorbed. What good does it do to hold back inventory when millions more foreclosures are in the pipeline and millions more homeowners are ninety days or more delinquent?

I have heard nothing from any news source about these numbers in a very long time. With energy prices as high as they are, the impact on family cash flow has to be so severe that many would be in arrears.

[WVKayaker]

12,000,000 people. averaging just $50K year would generate an additional $600 BILLION a year in total income, and generate a lot of taxes. The, when that $600 Billion is then spent by those CONSUMERS, housing will not be the only thing getting better.

Add in the return of a decent energy policy, get away from ethanol, and we can tell the rest of the world to get in line!

I will take Romney over Zero any day of the week, but especially on Nov. 6th!

[Irenic]

I think Romney did mention Dodd-Frank as part of the problem. I feel pretty sure if Romney mentioned that, he has more ideas on helping the housing market. And I am no Romney fan but he sure beats the skittle out of Obama.

“You say we were giving mortgages to people who weren’t qualified. That’s exactly right. It’s one of the reasons for the great financial calamity we had. And so Dodd-Frank correctly says we need to have qualified mortgages, and if you give a mortgage that’s not qualified, there are big penalties, except they didn’t ever go on and define what a qualified mortgage was. It’s been two years. We don’t know what a qualified mortgage is yet. So banks are reluctant to make loans, mortgages. It’s hurt the housing market because Dodd-Frank didn’t anticipate putting in place the kinds of regulations you have to have. It’s not that Dodd-Frank always was wrong with too much regulation. Sometimes they didn’t come out with a clear regulation.”