The bandage may not be big enough.
Foreclosures tripled this quarter, year-over-year. That will require an upward revision in the 2008 projections:
Because foreclosure filings are growing so quickly, RealtyTrac will have to reevaluate its foreclosure forecast for the year, according to spokesman Rick Sharga.
"We've been saying foreclosures will total 1.9 million to 2 million this year," he said. "But midway through the year, we're already at 1.4 million so we're going to be raising our projections."
Bad if you're a homeowner close to the edge. Bad if you're a Republican running for office. Nonetheless, this news provides Obama with ammunition to use in some very important places.
Two are Michigan and Ohio:
Detroit continued to suffer more than any other non-Sun Belt area, with one filing for every 66 households. And several Ohio cities were also hard hit, led by Toledo (one in 92 households), Akron (one in 93) and Cleveland (one in 108).
If there are two states that understand the price of econonic downturns, it's these two; at times, they've gone through them when the rest of the US was booming.
The other is Nevada:
At the state level, Nevada had the highest rate with one filing for every 43 households, while California had the highest total number of filings - 202,599.
Three battleground states, all facing economic hardship due to the lack of federal regulation from the Bush Administration. A bit reluctantly, McCain endorsed the housing bill:
Obama said the bill should be followed by approval of a second economic stimulus measure of "at least $50 billion." McCain economic adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin said that while the bill is not ideal, "the need for timely action is clear."
Still, Republicans hardly lined up to help homeowners threatened by foreclosure:
Of House Republicans, 45 voted for the bill and 149 voted against it. All but three Democrats voted in favor.
"Just because the housing market has tumbled doesn't mean we should capriciously finance a big fat government bailout," said Rep. Sam Johnson (R- Texas).
House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio expressed disappointment that the president would sign a "multibillion-dollar bailout for scam artists and speculative lenders."
One more thing: This won't get better soon; the bill wending its way to Bush won't go into effect until October 1st.
What else is there to say? Once again, Administration ineptitude punishes Americans, while Republicans insist the Federal Government shouldn't help, and McCain goes lukewarm. Played well, I think we just put three states in Obama's column.