New poll: 45% oppose government aid to homeowners

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

A couple of quickies this morning:

--A new online poll from AOL and Zogby International finds that ’45 percent of Americans feel that the government should not help homeowners at risk of foreclosure by offering special financing programs, rebates or credits.’ The poll was taken in mid-February and released today. Same poll finds that 47% of Americans would consider purchasing a home they had found by searching foreclosure listings.

--The L.A. Times conducts an autopsy on the congressional attempt to change bankruptcy law to allow bankruptcy judges to change home mortgages to stave off foreclosure. Cause of death: an intense and somewhat misleading lobbying campaign by the lending industry. ‘The Mortgage Bankers Assn., which spearheaded the Capitol Hill campaign, claimed that the bankruptcy measure would drive up the costs of all new residential mortgages by as much as 2 percentage points.... But that claim has come under fire by critics who say the MBA cherry-picked data to paint a bleak picture of sharply higher mortgage rates. The association also misquoted a study by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office in a way that made it seem that the CBO supported its position against the bill.’

Your thoughts? Comments? E-mail story tips to peter.viles@latimes.com.