The Broader Market

by Peter Swire and Jordan Eizenga

The current structure of the mortgage-servicing industry is such that servicers are responsible to investors and “owe no duty at all to consider the needs and interests of consumers.” That is, the clients of mortgage-servicing companies are investors in mortgage-backed securities for whom the servicers collect monthly mortgage payments from homeowners and, as a result, servicers have no fiduciary responsibility to protect consumers from improper acts and omissions by mortgage servicers.

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by Jordan Eizenga

Our still-ailing housing markets need all the first-time homebuyers and affordable rental housing investors we can find. The New Issue Bond Program, which the Department of the Treasury launched in 2009 to help state and local housing finance agencies continue financing housing for working families during the housing crisis, is set to expire at the end of 2011. The program’s imminent expiration threatens access to affordable rental housing and homeownership for many of those hardest hit by the housing crisis.

Fortunately, Treasury has the authority to extend the program beyond its current deadline. With half of all American renters devoting more than a third of their income to housing alone, and with private lenders writing off struggling communities and households that the housing finance agencies are uniquely able to serve, Treasury should extend the existing authority of the New Issue Bond Program so that it remains available through at least the end of 2012.[1]

For more of the article, see here.

by Sarah Rosen Wartell, David Min, and Jordan Eizenga

Our nation’s slowing economic recovery prompted policymakers to consider ways to shore up consumer demand and get our economy moving again. One central focus of these efforts was to find ways to improve the weak housing markets, where hundreds of thousands of foreclosed homes are keeping home values down and depressing household wealth, thus complicating efforts to generate demand and create jobs.

The Obama administration already had in place an important program that had the potential to strengthen the housing market, stimulate the economy, and increase employment. To combat the foreclosure crisis, the administration created the Home Affordable Refinance Program, or HARP for short, shortly after President Barack Obama took office.

by Jordan Eizenga

Durante la última década, el Departamento del Tesoro de EE.UU. se ha prestado miles de millones de dólares para financiar intervenciones militares en dos países, recortes de impuestos sin financiación, y, más recientemente, los esfuerzos para rescatar nuestro sistema financiero del colapso y ayudar a nuestra economía a recuperarse de la Gran Recesión. Pero hay un límite a estos préstamos, y se espera que el Departamento del Tesoro alcance este límite principios de julio a más tardar.

Mientras este plazo límite de la deuda se acerca, el pueblo estadounidense se está preguntando cuáles serán los efectos si el Congreso no levanta el límite de la deuda. Esta columna describe brevemente todo lo que necesita saber acerca de nuestro límite de la deuda, así como las posibles consecuencias de no levantarla.