DealBook: Bank of America Tests Rental Program as Alternative to Foreclosure

We’ve been skeptical of the private equity land rush to snap up single family homes for rentals. They’ve been a big enough force in the housing market nationwide to lead some commentators to question how solid the housing “recovery” is. Yet the combination of rising enthusiasm for housing and a richly-valued stock market is leading a raft of PE firms to ready IPOs as a way to take profits and establish valuations for their profit participations.

Inquiring minds are digging into a Fed white paper regarding The U.S. Housing Market: Current Conditions and Policy Considerations. Here are a couple of key snips. The bold headings are mine. Overriding Private Contract Rights

Bank of America will offer a small number of customers facing foreclosure the option to remain in their homes and rent the property.

The White House has announced new plans for mortgage modifications.  Good summary at Calculated Risk, with a follow-up.

In addition to the phenomenon of "foreclosure stuffing" described here extensively before, one of the main reasons for the artificial drop in housing supply has been the ongoing government-subsidized, GSE/FHFA endorsed REO-to-Rent initiative, through which large asset managers have been encouraged to take advantage of government funded, risk-free financing and purchase foreclosed properties in bulk, with the intention of

ETF Database submits: Most financials have been under the microscope in recent weeks, with poor reports coming out of both Bank of America and Citigroup and Washington pushing through a plan to overhaul the existing regulatory system. These events have caused many investors to wonder about the prospects of growth at big Wall Street banks; some are now looking to other corners of the market in order to provide exposure to financials without considerable downside risk.

The Federal Reserve just released transcripts to all of its meetings from 2007, the year the U.S. housing market took a turn for the worse and the economy entered recession.

By David Sims:According to the FHFA, a program to sell pools of foreclosed homes—real estate owned (REO)—to investors is seeing "robust" demand with "strong qualified bidder interest." The program was launched in February and during the second quarter, bids were solicited to sell 2,500 REO properties to investors.