What President Obama Will Say About Housing in Tomorrow’s State of the Union Addy: Not Much

He’s got himself in a real pickle. The President has been ineffectual in resurrecting the housing market from the crash he (to be fair) inherited in 2008 over four years in office! As Stacy Kaper reports in The National Journal, he won’t mention housing much because he has so little to brag about. He and his team seem to be crossing themselves and their fingers that the economy is getting better and that somehow that “betterness” will metamorphize to the housing sector. What is sad but true is that even though other parts of the economy are getting better, housing is not, in part because of lending strait jackets and a never-ending stream of foreclosures. Look for him, says Kaper, to brag about a year long effort by state attorneys general to reach a broad mortgage-servicing settlement, which would provide up to $25 billion in relief to homeowners. But will such a settlement just come back and bite consumers in the butt? He’s also said to be implementing a plan to create rentals out of foreclosures, and let underwater owners turn in mortgages in exchange for becoming renters. All interesting, but no addressing of the lending issues and way broad sweeping “reform” which is clogging the system and choking housing.