Foreclosures and job losses to blame for housing crisis

Nicolas Retsinas, director of the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University and former assistant secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Planning, said on Bloomberg News not to expect a housing upturn any time soon. Retsinas said that as long as there are foreclosures and job losses, the housing market will continue to decline. While the Obama administration has introduced aggressive loan modification programs to help people pay their mortgages, Retsinas said he is not sure if these programs will withstand increasing job losses and be effective. He said that preventing job losses and foreclosures, not just loan modifications, should be the part of the main focus of government initiatives. As long as homes continue to foreclose, the housing market won’t stabilize.