Federal Neighborhood Stabilization Program Aims to Prevent Foreclosures
There have been a lot of programs and plans announced over the past year or so meant to prevent foreclosures and stop their effect on the economy. One of the latest programs is one introduced as the Neighborhood Stabilization Program. This program is rolled out on the federal level, and aims to target areas that are prone to foreclosure and work on changing neighborhoods around. Real Estate Pro Articles describes the main thrust of the program:
The plan for these areas is to buy out units that are considered soon-to-be foreclosures. The units will then be handed over to non-profit housing organizations. Such associations will then be tasked to rehabilitate the properties. The repossessed houses will be made available to qualified buyers.
It seems like a pretty good idea. I like how the plan focuses on:
- Buying homes before they enter foreclosure.
- Fixing up homes and neighborhoods.
- Qualified buyers will be screened for the properties.
- It helps non-profit housing programs.
Alone, though, this program probably won’t be enough. Coordinated efforts are needed to fix this housing crisis. And, once it works its way through the mortgage market and the economy, sensible regulation is needed to prevent it from happening again. Unfortunately, many programs meant to reduce foreclosures only delay them for awhile (like the mortgage rate freeze enacted almost a year ago). Additionally, many of the efforts, though well-meaning, are a disconnected bunch of policies. Only a few bright spots have been seen, and they are disjointed, so they are not working in tandem to help the mortgage and housing market.
In any case, there are some good ideas out there. But I fear that the best solution is to let the housing bottom come as quickly as possible, and then let the whole thing work itself out. Oh, and people need to have a change in mind-set, harking back to the days when they bought what they could afford, and were reasonably satisfied with a modest home.
January 31st, 2009 at 9:15 pm
[…] gone to state and local communities, which I always thought was okay. Here is the purpose of the program: There have been a lot of programs and plans announced over the past year or so meant to prevent […]