We Buy Houses

These signs are appearing everywhere. Sometimes the say "avoid foreclosure". People all over the country have been buying more house than they could afford using all manners of creative financing. Well the ARM's et al are coming due, the housing boom is going bust and we are about to see foreclosures at new record levels. In case you missed it Atrios, aka Duncan Black - economist, has some excellent advice for the Democratic politicians.

If, as I cautiously predict, we're about to hit a massive foreclosure wave which is going to hit people at just about every income level there is a certain party whose name starts with the letter 'D' which might find it beneficial to start branding themselves as Friends of Homeowners with some smart policy proposals to back them up.

Off the top of my head this could include cracking down on bad lending practices, providing legal assistance to victims of dishonest lending practices, removing impediments to prepayment and refinancing, and, of course, repealing the bankruptcy bill...