From her sidewalk, Yvonne Miskech can point out three other survivors among the homes on Red Glitter Street. Most of the rest went through foreclosure or short sales and now are vacant or rented.
The hospital laid off Miskech three years ago, and her home is worth about one-third of its $302,000 purchase price in 2005. But she and her husband, Joe, who still delivers for FedEx, are making their payments. They even bought the bargain-priced house next door to rent it out for extra income - another bet on a neighborhood and a city at the epicenter of the housing crisis.
“I’m not going to leave it,” Yvonne Miskech said. “It’s our responsibility.”
Like Georgia, Nevada has been hammered by the housing bust. Unlike Georgia, it is at the heart of the presidential campaign. President Barack Obama rallied 8,000 supporters in Las Vegas last week, a day after Republican challenger Mitt Romney addressed a National Guard convention in Reno. Both are bombarding the state with television ads.
Still, neither has made housing policy a centerpiece of his campaign, despite the ongoing destruction of foreclosures and fallen property values.
Obama would continue a mix of mortgage-relief and regulatory fixes that have had mixed results. Romney has offered few specifics but mostly would seek to reduce government intervention.
A longtime Republican, Yvonne Miskech plans to vote for Romney. “I think (Obama) just hasn’t done much,” she said.
Adrian Cronje, chief investment officer of Atlanta-based investment firm Balentine, called the Obama record on housing “disappointing. And I’m afraid the suggested alternative by Mr. Romney is not real clear either.”
Cronje said a housing recovery needs policies that increase demand, get banks lending again and attack the problem of excess consumer debt.
There are a few signs of life in foreclosure, sales and pricing trends. David Stevens, president of the Mortgage Bankers Association and former commissioner of the Federal Housing Administration under Obama, predicted the nascent rebound means similar paths for a second-term Obama or newly elected Romney on housing.
“We can continue this path to recovery” regardless of who is in office, Stevens said. “You can argue there might be slightly different nuances around how big a role government should have in housing finance.”
Obama’s programs
In its early days the Obama administration — in the midst of carrying out bailouts of the auto industry and banks initiated by the George W. Bush administration, as well as the massive stimulus law — declined a major housing intervention, such as large-scale debt forgiveness.
Instead in February 2009 Obama announced the Home Affordable Modification Program and the Home Affordable Refinance Program, paving the way for homeowners to reduce their mortgage payments through modifying the loan or refinancing to take advantage of low interest rates.
But those programs fell far short of Obama’s pledge to help between 7 million and 9 million families.
Through July, the Treasury Department reported that more than 1.2 million homeowners have modified their mortgages through HAMP and its sister programs. About 32,000 Georgia homeowners have taken advantage of the program. HARP – which was retooled last year to serve a broader population – helped refinance 1.5 million mortgages through July, including 61,000 in Georgia.
The Obama campaign pointed to an administration report released that month showing a broader impact: Including what banks have done on their own, there have been 5.6 million mortgage modifications since 2009.
In addition, the Dodd-Frank financial reform law has portions designed to crack down on predatory lending. And the Department of Justice earlier this year reached a $25 billion settlement with five major banks over alleged foreclosure abuses, with the money pledged to assist struggling homeowners.
Stevens, who joined the administration in July 2009 as FHA commissioner before leaving last year for MBA, said policymakers struggled with “moral hazard” in trying not to reward irresponsible borrowers.
Stevens said it is noteworthy that the administration created the programs from scratch and was willing to revise them.
“Many who were involved and worked on the programs obviously are not as satisfied with the results as they would have hoped,” he said. “But I think there is a lot of satisfaction that we created a whole variety of new programs that were never invented” and can be a template for the next crisis.
Romney’s course
The Romney campaign contends that the continued weakness in the economy shows the failure of Obama’s policies.
In the same situation, Romney deputy policy director Jonathan Burks said the GOP nominee would have done more to spur the economy and he would not have pursued a health care law as Obama did.
Burks said a President Romney would continue to encourage refinancing, as Obama has. Romney would seek to close down the government-backed lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which Obama also has proposed but not acted on. Still, Burks said, “There is certainly a government role in certain segments of the market,” mentioning first-time homebuyers and veterans as examples.
Romney supports some “alternatives” to foreclosure, which Burks said could mean a bank taking over a house but allowing the foreclosed family to remain as renters. Repealing the Dodd-Frank law would be a feature of the Romney housing plan, Burks said, because it would allow banks to spend less on compliance and make them more willing to lend.
Romney told donors at a closed-door fundraiser this spring that he would consider eliminating the department of Housing and Urban Development as part of a government reorganization. HUD funds and oversees public housing projects and insures mortgages through FHA, among other programs.
Romney opened himself to criticism when he told the Las Vegas Review-Journal editorial board last year that the best course was to “Let (the foreclosure process) run its course and hit the bottom.” Romney contended that was the best way for the market to bounce back, but Democrats called the laissez-faire approach callous.
When the president visited Las Vegas last week, he touched on the housing market only briefly. Obama said “my administration has already helped more [than] a million responsible homeowners refinance their mortgages,” never mentioning that he had promised many times more.
He also told his audience: “I don’t think the answer for hard-working folks here in Nevada whose homes are underwater is to do nothing, let it bottom out.”
Searching for a rebound
Nevada’s housing recovery remains uneven. While Georgia and metro Atlanta still are swamped in foreclosures, a state law enacted last year to fight fraud has all but stopped them here. But that’s just prolonging the slump, said Soozi Jones Walker, a Las Vegas Realtor. She expects the next three to five years to be rocky for the housing market.
“We’re going to get a couple more black eyes before this is all over,” Walker said.
Rising new home construction - also seen in metro Atlanta - has been cause for what North Las Vegas city manager Tim Hacker called “less pessimism.”
One North Las Vegas example belongs to Michael and Laurie Walker (no relation to Soozi Jones Walker). In 2007 their old adjustable rate mortgage payment jumped from $1,700 to $2,200.They fell behind and filed for bankruptcy.
The Walkers rented for four years and worked out a payment plan through the bankruptcy. Last year the Walkers, who both work for the county school district, bought a $110,000 foreclosure from their credit union - this time with a fixed-rate loan.
“We’re learning to limit ourselves, to survive,” Michael Walker said.
The Walkers attended the Obama rally last week and support the president.
“I see a lot of change that did happen,” Laurie Walker said. “A lot of things he can’t do. He can’t change the world.”
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