How many judges out there are tired of granting foreclosures only to see them linger for years with no “good” new homeowner getting in there?
How many cities are tired of vacant and abandoned homes?
How many cops are tired of homes that become nesting places for nefarious criminals?
And certainly all of us are sick of the banks throwing the “bad” neighbor into the street then letting the home sit abandoned with no one new in it.
If the nationalized institutions won’t do their job, something must be done to force them
So here’s something that just might make sense….
NEW YORK June 8 (Reuters) – Here’s a controversial but intriguing approach to the U.S. housing crisis: keep cash-strapped residents in their homes by condemning their mortgages.
A mortgage firm backed by a number of prominent West Coast financiers is pushing local politicians in California and a handful of other states hardest hit by the housing crisis to use eminent domain to restructure mortgages that borrowers owe more money on than their homes are actually worth.
San Francisco-based Mortgage Resolution Partners, in a presentation reviewed by Reuters, says condemning so-called underwater mortgages and taking them out of the hands of private lenders and bondholders is “the only practical way to modify mortgages on a large enough scale to solve the housing crisis.”
Eminent domain is a well-tested power by local government to get a court order to take over a property it deems either blighted or needed for the public good.
Over the years, governments have used eminent domain authority to clear urban slums or seize land to build highways and bridges.
Reuters