Obama’s campaign has done very well in how they handle themselves and respond to criticism.  He takes an approach of portraying himself as more ethically and morally upstanding than his opponents.  He takes the higher ground.

The White House temporarily suspends a rule that imposes a 90-day waiting period before foreclosed homes can be sold to receive government loans.

The Bush administration is temporarily suspending a 5-year-old rule intended to deter property flippers, as part of an effort to help speed the sale of foreclosed properties.

For one year, the Federal Housing Administration will no longer impose a 90-day waiting period before foreclosed properties can be sold to receive government-backed loans.

The policy was put in place in 2003 to deter property “flipping” schemes, in which buyers are overcharged for foreclosures or other distressed properties. But the surge in vacant properties resulting from borrowers who were unable to afford their mortgages has become a far more pressing concern.

“A glut of foreclosed and abandoned homes harms neighborhoods, frustrates homebuyers and delays a community’s recovery,” FHA commissioner Brian Montgomery said in a prepared statement.
The new policy “will allow homebuyers to purchase these homes in much greater numbers and ease the excess supply of unsold homes,” Montgomery said.

Nationwide, 261,255 homes received at least one foreclosure-related filing in May, up 48% from the same month last year, and up 7% from April, foreclosure listing company RealtyTrac Inc. said Friday.

Special thanks to Victor Carlino with Mountain West Bank for forwarding this information to me.

I’m sitting in my office watching the sun peak through the clouds as an occasional rain shower passes by.  It always smells good here after the rain.  Hopefully everyone is getting to enjoy a little bit of spring before we go into the next heat wave. 

Despite all the doom and gloom of the market, gas prices, etc…

My advice is to try and enjoy the simple things and take a moment to recognize everything that we take for granted.  Maybe a bit Budhast, but it’s all too easy to forget that we’re living in the moment and not the future.