The Big Picture | George Soros on Markets (Bill Moyers)
by Tom on October 12, 2008
in Market Musings, house prices
Well, first of all you have to prevent housing crisis from overshooting on the downside the way they overshot on the upside. You can’t arrest the decline, but you can definitely slow it down by minimizing the number of foreclosures and readjusting the mortgages to reflect the ability of people to pay. So you have to renegotiate mortgages rather than foreclose.
And you provide the government guarantee. But the loss has to be taken by those who hold the mortgages, not by the taxpayer.
BILL MOYERS: You mean the homeowner doesn’t take the loss. The lender.
GEORGE SOROS: The homeowner needs to get relief so that he pays less because he can’t afford to pay. And the value of the mortgage should not exceed the value of the house. Right now you already have 10 million homes where you have negative equity. And before you are over, it will be more than 20 million.
via The Big Picture | George Soros on Markets (Bill Moyers)
That is just an excerpt of an interview between George Soros and Bill Moyers that talks about the housing market. I’d recommend reading the rest of it, but that’s the only part that directly impacts the housing market.
Tom Vanderwell
Thank you for your article. IT’s good to know as much as possible these days when it comes to mortgages. Thanks!