ROSS: ENOUGH WITH THE FEDS MEDDLING WITH RESI REAL ESTATE FORECLOSURES ALREADY

Wilbur Ross talks to CNBC:

All the meddling in the real estate side of life has not fixed residential real estate. If anything I think it’s made it worse, because it’s extending out the foreclosure time lines and putting more uncertainty and more downward pressure. [Emph. added]

This is exactly right. The housing market won’t heal until bank-owned properties clear the market, but that market-clearing can’t begin in earnest as long as the government pursues its hare-brained loan-mod schemes. In the meantime, defaulted borrowers (read: incremental rental demand) get to live rent-free for months on end. How is that a good thing? The recovery process is going to be painful and take time, but government intervention sure isn’t helping. . . .