Resolving housing, lending dilemmas

After a year of rising foreclosures, a housing market slump, and lenders reporting tremendous losses, it is time to focusing on who is to blame and start working on a long-term solution to stabilize our economy by bringing the housing and lending market back in balance.

The current proposed solutions of tax rebates and mortgage bailouts are election-year solutions -- shortsighted and unsustainable. They won't have the impact needed to keep our communities vital and strong and our housing market moving.

Imposing high fees and tightening lending standards to the point of absurdity will only accelerate the crisis and result in more foreclosures, empty homes, and distressed communities.

It is time for every vested party (homeowners, business owners, taxpayers) to call on our government and the lending agencies to keep safe, affordable mortgage money accessible to qualified buyers. They need to support homeownership education to create qualified buyers, and monitor lenders to ensure that the mortgages they sell will be the right one to keep a borrower in their home until they are ready to sell.

With plenty of housing inventory available and mortgage rates still very low, this is a wonderful time to be a buyer -- if you can get a mortgage.

The lending standards and fees now being imposed by the secondary market -- including our own State Housing Authority -- have made homeownership unreachable for all but an elite few with credit scores over 740 and down payments of 60 percent or more. They are creating a bigger problem rather than helping the recovery.

Common sense underwriting, reasonable lending standards, and a commitment to home buyer education will help us recover. These agencies that reaped excessive profits that helped put us in this mess need to be held accountable -- and be a part of the long-term solution.

Kathe Doremus

Winfield