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My colleagues and I at HSH have asked and debated over this question for most of the year: “To what cost are we willing to promote home ownership?” As close to the market as we are, we fully recognize the value of home ownership. However, our lawmakers have steadfastly promoted it above any other option despite a housing crisis and a soaring national budget. The question is: “When is enough enough?”

Washington has developed multi-billion dollar programs to modify and refinance troubled mortgages, subsidize mortgage rates, we’ve thrown massive lifelines to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, a $10 billion homebuyer tax credit extension, and the list goes on.

While initial unemployment claims were technically “flat” last week, the number was still over 500,000 — a level the unemployment indicator has remained at for 53 straight weeks. Despite any improvements we’ve seen in the economy, it appears as though employers just aren’t hiring…outside the mortgage industry that is.

With current lending requirements being as strict as they are, mortgage companies aren’t looking for more mortgage originators necessarily, they’re hiring workers to restructure troubled mortgages:

At a financial seminar in Japan yesterday, Comptroller of the Currency John Dugan urged mortgage regulators around the world to institute minimum underwriting standards which every lender must adhere to.

“These standards would not dictate every underwriting feature of a mortgage product; instead, they would focus on core practices of sound underwriting on which there is the broadest consensus,” said Mr. Dugan.

We’ve expressed doubts with regards to claims that the homebuyer tax credit was responsible for up to 50% of the year’s increase in home sales.

Industry groups like the National Association of Realtors (NAR) and the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) pleaded with lawmakers to extend and expand the tax credit, for without it, the housing market would “freeze again.” The NAR estimated that “350,000 sales, or nearly half of the 710,000 increase in home sales since January, are directly attributable to the tax credit,” wrote the Wall Street Journal last month.

Back in July we wrote about a foreclosure assistance program that was specific to the city of Philadelphia — a program that seemed to be generating far better results than other foreclosure-prevention efforts. Nearly some six months later, Philly’s “Residential Mortgage Foreclosure Diversion Pilot Program” is back in the news, and it’s gaining quite a bit of traction nationwide.

There were only a few details available this summer in regards to the Philly program and why it was as successful as it was. However, thanks to a recent article in the New York Times, we’re beginning to learn more:

We apologize for we understand that there was a technical difficulty that prevented this week’s stories from appearing on the blog.

Here are the links to this week’s stories (so far) so you can get caught up. Again, we apologize for the inconvenience.

Chris Thorman at www.SoftwareAdvice.com has written a great post on Fannie Mae’s recently-announced Deed for Lease (D4L) program that complements our previous post on the subject very well.

Thorman’s article does a good job at breaking down D4L using easy-to-understand language. “Own to Rent: Breaking Down Fannie Mae’s Deed for Lease Program,” covers how the program works, who is eligible, property requirements, as well as examines whether or not it makes financially to take advantage of the program.

-One of our dedicated readers Chris passed this article along — he thought our other readers would find it interesting-

When a bill that included the extensions of both the homebuyer tax credit and unemployment benefits was circulating through Washington, most of chatter surrounding the legislation had to do with the former rather than the latter. However, there was another aspect of the bill that no one seemed to hear very much about: “a tax break that lets big companies offset losses incurred in 2008 and 2009 against profits booked as far back as 2004,” writes the New York Times.

Who stands to reap the greatest reward from the tax breaks which are estimated to be worth upwards of $33 billion? Some analysts say home builders.

There’s no doubt that today’s strict underwriting requirements have left many borrowers with a bad taste in their mouth. However, a recent study suggests that an open line of communication between servicer and borrower can greatly improves a customer’s experience — even in a stressful loan environment like the one we’re in.

J.D. Power and Associates 2009 Primary Mortgage Origination Satisfaction Survey found that longer loan approval times and stricter standards have caused levels of customer satisfaction to fall:

Over the past year or so, the daunting task facing potential homebuyers hasn’t been locking in on a low mortgage rate, it has been whether or not you can qualify for financing amidst the strict lending conditions. The last issue of HSH’s Market Trends Newsletter, “Rates Ease Back Slightly,” compares it to “a group of penniless children staring in the candy-store window: You can look, but you can’t buy.”

“Mortgage rates eased back a little bit [last] week. Although the price of money is quite attractive, the availability of it remains difficult for many borrowers.”