The American Red Cross estimates that more than 350,000 homes were destroyed by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, while an additional 146,000 had major damage. According to a recent article in the New York Times, wildfires in Southern California consumed over 1,000 homes and other structures, were threatening 68,500 more, and had displaced over 500,000 people.
These are truly natural and national disasters, but in some ways they are dwarfed by the man-made disaster that is currently afflicting the housing industry all across the nation. For the first-quarter of 2007, Realty Trac reported more than 430,000 foreclosure filings, including default notices, auction sale notices, and bank repossessions. That places U.S. homeowners on the track to getting booted out of over 1 million homes in a single year. For the people losing their homes in foreclosure, the loss is no less devastating than losing a home to a fire or flood. In some cases, the experience is even more tragic -- after all, those families who lose their home to foreclosure don't get an insurance settlement; they don't have money to rebuild.
More than 1 million families are going to lose their homes to foreclosure, yet I haven't seen a single governor declare a state emergency. I haven't heard the President identify any national disaster areas.
Although I agree that a federal bailout could do more harm than good -- rewarding the lending industry for rolling out risky products and making bad decisions -- I think the government could do more for homeowners. If the government is worried about the money, perhaps it can force the lenders who created this mess to clean it up, or lenders can voluntarily step up to the plate.
Countrywide Mortgage recently announced its decision to assist homeowners by refinancing or modifying $16 billion of loans, primarily to assist 82,000 borrowers who took out adjustable-rate mortgages and face higher payments to keep their homes. Some analysts feel that this will encourage the resumption of risky lending to risky borrowers, which is a valid concern, but in the current situation, drastic measures like this may be necessary.
When we see the images of Southern California burning and the floodwaters from hurricanes Katrina and Rita, we don't hesitate as a nation to send rescue personnel and resources to those areas. We should take the same approach with the current mortgage meltdown and foreclosure epidemic. Real families are hurting from this national disaster. We shouldn't make matters worse by bailing out the culprits, but we do need to tend to the victims.
