Globe Op-Ed on Foreclosures

Attorney General Martha Coakley has an op-ed in today's Globe about new moves intended to curtail the ongoing foreclosure crisis.  Coakley writes of a statutorily mandated loan modification procedure now under consideration in the legislature and of HomeCorps, and initiative in her office, financed in part by the proceeds of the mortgage industry settlement.  HomeCoprs, according to the Op-Ed and the AG's own webpage, will provide borrowers in financial difficulty with a state-employed advocate who will help represent their interests in the loan modification process.

As Attorney General Coakley correctly observes in her Globe column, the piecemeal approach to loan modification used during the past five years has only served to prolong the foreclosure crisis.  Until there is a more comprehensive, enforceable approach that provides for principal reduction in place, there is little hope for a rapid end to the foreclosure-driven real estate slump that continues to this today.