Reauthorizing the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act should be a no-brainer, Zillow’s Chief Economist Stan Humphries argues.
Humphries says that at the end of the second quarter, 17 percent of Americans with a mortgage were underwater, amounting to nine million homeowners. But congress removed a waiver that would have alleviated a tax burden on an underwater loan that lenders forgave. Humphries adds that even as the economy continues to improve, homeowners that are underwater on their mortgages will act as an anchor on the housing market for years to come.