Dr. Richard Green, Director of the USC Lusk Center for Real Estate, is quoted in the June 27, 2009 edition of the Los Angeles Times
Mortgage forgiveness may be next
Los Angeles Times
By Tom Petruno
...Government and private-lender attempts to stem the home foreclosure crisis so far have mostly focused on loan modifications or refinancing - giving borrowers a temporary or permanent reduction in their monthly payments. But some housing experts say the next wave of help will have to address the core problem for many homeowners: negative equity...
...Richard Green, director of the USC Lusk Center for Real Estate, also favors the debt-for-equity swap concept to permanently reduce mortgage balances for struggling homeowners. The need is chronic, he says, in places like Riverside County, "where prices aren't coming back to where they were maybe in our lifetimes."...
..."The idea that these loans are worth face value is a fiction," Green said. "If we don't deal with [reducing] the balances, we're not really dealing with the problem."...
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June 27, 2009