Reply #18: Foreclosure freeze gets cold shoulder from experts

[EFerrari]

By Alan J. Heavens
Inquirer Real Estate Writer
10/17


A nationwide freeze on home foreclosures.

Outrage over improperly examined, potentially inaccurate foreclosure documents - and the announcement last week that the attorneys general of all 50 states and the District of Columbia would mount investigations into them - seems to make one a real possibility.

Indeed, on Friday, Americans for Financial Reform, a coalition of 250 state and national groups ranging from AARP to the World Privacy Forum, called for a temporary moratorium, saying it would be wrong to "trust those who created them to self-certify correction" of the problems.

A freeze on foreclosures would certainly offer breathing room to individual borrowers battling to hold on to their homes.

But the consensus among economists and industry observers is that a state-by-state moratorium would merely prolong the current housing downturn - if not worsen it.

http://www.philly.com/philly/business/personal_finance/20101017_Foreclosure_freeze_gets_cold_shoulder_from_experts.html?page=1&c=y