Romney releases white paper on housing, but few policy details given

September 24, 2012 04:30PM

Mitt Romney

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney quietly issued a white paper on his housing policy on Friday, though it was overshadowed bythe much-anticipated release of his 2011 tax return.

The seven-page white paper says the Romney-Ryan plan will “end the housing crisis” and reduce the “out-sized” government role in the housing market. However, it includes very few details on how the Republican nominee intends to accomplish his plan, most of which was outlined earlier this month in a bullet-point list on his website.

The document says Romney would overhaul Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac so they won’t be “too-big-to-fail,” and “provide a long-term, sustainable solution” for housing financing, though it does not say exactly how a Romney-Ryan administration would do so. It also promises to provide more foreclosure alternatives, replace Dodd-Frank with “sensible regulation” and sell off the 200,000 vacant foreclosed FHA-backed homes currently owned by the government to home buyers. Again, there are almost no specifics on these plans in the paper published on Romney’s site on Friday.

Bloomberg Businesseeek points out that Romney’s talking points on the housing crisis are not so dissimilar to President Barack Obama’s housing plan and his administration’s efforts to stem foreclosures and revamp the crumbling housing finance industry, particularly in the push for providing additional foreclosure alternatives. [Mittromney.com] [Bloomberg News] – Jane C. Timm

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