Here is some extraordinary real estate news on the horizon you may have missed on this Passover and Easter weekend when everyone’s attention is on family, community and faith. Our Federal Reserve chose to encourage banks to rent their foreclosed properties by issuing new guidelines. If you missed this news, I am sure you are not the only one.
The new policies apply to banks who own real property or are about to own homes in distress from the bank’s perspective. It appears the Fed has endorsed an opportunity for banks giving them the option to rent their foreclosed and distressed properties as their new strategy and solution to the collapse of the housing market. Does anyone have any clue on where NAR (National Association of Realtors) is on this issue given their “good time to buy” policy and commercials?
The Fed states its regulations will permit the rental of foreclosed properties to tenants. It encouraged the banks to establish policies for renting foreclosures including a way to determine if the homes are safe to occupy. I assume this is to avoid “as is” rentals!
It appears the Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke is encouraging banks to become landlords. Here is a link to the article I read on Bloomberg. What is your take on this strategy? How will it impact your local real estate market? What happened to buy vs rent if you are a buyer? Do home owners who want or need to rent now have to to compete with banks in this way as well?
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