Tag Archives: Center for American Progress

The U.S. housing market could experience a severe double-dip contraction marked by lower home sales and depressed house prices if Congress fails to raise the federal debt ceiling, according to the Center for American Progress, a nonprofit research group. The Center says inaction to raise the debt limit would spark a return of the economic pain of the past few years as foreclosures would remain at record highs for an even longer stretch. Not raising the limit by early August threatens to put the U.S. itself on the verge of default.

Michael Barr has rejoined the nonprofit think tank the Center for American Progress (CAP) as a senior fellow. From 2009 to 2010, Barr served as the U.S. Department of the Treasury's assistant secretary for financial institutions and was a key architect of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

Organizations from every corner of the industry are weighing in on the administration's proposal to reform the nation's housing finance system. A number of groups are throwing their support behind the long-term reform option that calls for a group of private companies to provide guarantees for well underwritten mortgage securities, and the federal government to offer investors a type of reinsurance on these bonds. There are some, though, who say even this more prudent approach will raise borrowing costs and push small businesses out of the market.

Given the relative stability of Canadian housing markets, many observers try to draw comparisons between the housing finance policies of Canada and its southern neighbor the United States. Why is it the U.S. suffered through such a painful housing bubble and bust in the last decade, while Canada did not? Despite similarities in their homeownership rates and mortgage lending dominated by government backing, the fates of the two countries' housing markets took very divergent paths.