This is not a grand philosophical question. Rather, it is a concrete question about how the media should talk about the housing bill. It is standard practice to report that the bill will aid 400,000 homeowners facing foreclosure, based on the Congressional Budget Office's (CBO) estimate. However, CBO estimates that 140,000 of these homeowners will face foreclosure a second time and lose their home. So, should we say that a person who struggles with high mortgage payment for 2 to 3 years (likely much higher than the rent on a comparable unit) and then ends up getting foreclosed, with zero equity, has been helped? If we only count the people who CBO expects to actually avoid being foreclosed a second time, then the bill helps 260,000 homeowners.
--Dean Baker
