Finding the floor in housing

Re “Real estate reality,” editorial, Jan. 26

The “real estate reality” is that, during the last few decades, it was the mission of the federal government to make houses more affordable for more people. Lending standards were lowered to meet those goals. It would be the end of capitalism if the government tried to fix the floor on home prices, which must seek a level at which they again become affordable for new buyers. America needs to return to the “can you afford it” standard -- and reject the “are you qualified” standard of the recent past -- no matter how painful.

Roy Fassel

Los Angeles

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Too bad your editorial was not printed sooner. A moratorium on foreclosures should have been instituted long ago. This would have forced banks and other lenders to work with borrowers to cut interest rates, waive mortgage rate adjustments, extend the life of mortgages and, if necessary, to recognize that homes may fall in value far below the mortgage amount owed. This would have enabled thousands of homeowners to continue to live in their homes, and lenders would not be stuck with huge inventories of foreclosed properties. In the long run, banks and other lenders would not have had the kinds of losses they are having now.

Maybe it’s because the financial wizards now running banks and other lending institutions were not around during the Depression. If they had been, they might have learned the lessons of shotgun foreclosures.

S. Dell Scott

Encino