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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowTwenty-one states, including Indiana, are pushing ahead with consumer-protection laws and bond sales to try to minimize the impact of the deepest housing downturn since the Great Depression, according to Bloomberg.
Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels signed a bill designed to offer consulting to homeowners who are in default or in danger of doing so.
A New York agency might let borrowers take on fixed-rate mortgages in place of riskier loans. Texas is considering requiring first-time buyers to get counseling, and Colorado lawmakers might force mortgage brokers to learn more about a borrower’s income before offering credit.
Nationally, the 147,708 mortgages in foreclosure are a 62-percent increase from a year earlier. In the first quarter, the median house price slipped 1.8 percent.
In Ohio, foreclosures are accelerating briskly due to slow economic growth and job losses in manufacturing. Yet another problem was “aggressive lending practices that were barely policed,” State Treasurer Richard Cordray told Bloomberg.
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