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A New Tactic: Federal Government Renting Foreclosed Homes

  • July 22nd 2011

by Mark Wellborn

A New Tactic: Federal Government Renting Foreclosed Homes: Figure 1

In a new effort to stabilize the country’s housing market, The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the Obama administration is considering ways to rent out foreclosed properties (subscription required).

The details about the proposal are scant, but the reasons behind it are pretty clear: home prices are dropping in many parts of the country as rents increase and there are hundreds of thousands of foreclosures on the market with more to come.

From the Journal:

While the plans may not advance beyond the concept phase, they are under serious consideration by senior administration officials because rents are rising even as home prices in many hard-hit markets continue to fall due to high foreclosure levels.

This concept could conceivably help the tight local rental market. As we reported at the beginning of the month, Delta Associates second quarter report showed that rents in the DC area have risen 6.3 percent over the past twelve months while vacancy rates sit at 3.1 percent, the third lowest vacancy for a major metro area in the country.

See other articles related to: obama, the wall street journal

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/a_new_tactic_federal_government_renting_foreclosed_homes/3850.

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