Emotional testimony from a man whose friend recently took his own life at Western High School punctuated his call Friday for action by lending institutions and government policymakers to come up with a realistic solution to the housing foreclosure crisis.
Las Vegas home sales dropped 26.5 percent in October from a year ago and inventory climbed 7.5 percent, an indication the housing market will end the year more sluggish than usual.
The U.S. Department of Justice has given Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto’s office a $1.7 million grant to expand services addressing mortgage fraud and vacant-property crimes. Masto’s office will add four investigators and two prosecutors to a mortgage-fraud unit that already has three investigators and three prosecutors.
The collapse in housing prices is not simply a blip in the market, but a fundamental resetting of values underlined by high unemployment, slower income growth and a more conservative consumer who will be more likely to rent than buy, an expert for Brookings’ Metropolitan Policy Program says.
When Fannie Mae, one of two troubled government-backed mortgage-finance companies, guaranteed mortgage loans in Southern Nevada, homes were more expensive, and the average loan was worth 75 percent of the value of the home that secured it.
Nevada’s congressional Democrats, up for re-election next month, agree that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac must improve to protect taxpayers from future bailouts, but Silver State Republicans argue taxpayers would be off the hook if the government-sponsored companies were replaced by private interests.
North Las Vegas’ economy could see some bright spots, but the valley’s housing market may not experience a full rebound for nearly a generation, predicted a local observer at the city’s Directions 2010 event Thursday.
A joint investigation by every state could force mortgage companies to settle allegations that they used flawed documents to foreclose on hundreds of thousands of homeowners. Lenders could be forced to accept an independent monitor to ensure they follow state laws and pay some people whose foreclosures were improperly handled.
