"One is, don't try and stop the foreclosure process. Let it run its course and hit the bottom. Allow investors to buy homes, put renters in them, fix the homes up. Let it turn around and come back up. The Obama Administration has slow-walked the foreclosure processes that have long existed, and as a result we still have a foreclosure overhang."
How's that for refreshing? After five years of politicians trying without success to levitate the housing market by postponing foreclosures, Mr. Romney dared to tell the truth. Parts of the U.S., including Nevada, still have too many homes, and that supply needs to be sold off and fixed up so the market can find a bottom before home prices can start to rise again. The faster that process proceeds, the faster the recovery will take hold.
For this apostasy, Mr. Romney is getting whacked by the Democratic National Committee in a 30-second TV ad that first aired Tuesday in Arizona: "Almost half of Arizona homeowners underwater. Foreclosures everywhere. And what's Mitt Romney's plan?" the ad intones. Then it quotes Mr. Romney: "Don't try and stop the foreclosure process. Let it run its course and hit the bottom.'"
The attack ad doesn't quote the second part of Mr. Romney's Las Vegas answer, which spoke another truth: "Number two, the credit [that] was given to first time homebuyers was insufficient and inadequate to turn around the housing market. I think it was an ineffective idea. It was a little bit like the cash-for-clunkers program, throwing government money at something which was not market-oriented, did not staunch the decline in home values anymore than it encouraged the auto industry to take off."
Forclosures: Romney's Finest Hour
via online.wsj.com
