U.S. government stresses fixing ailing property market

The housing bubble bursting several years ago left a "terrible legacy" of mortgage failures for homeowners and financial agencies, and the U.S. government would continue fixing the sagging property market, a senior Treasury official said on Thursday. "We think there is an opportunity to address the backlog of unsold homes by creating a process for moving real estate owned by the government to new private owners, with a particular interest in creating rental options, as we see more demand right now for home rentals than home sales," Mary Miller, assistant U.S. Treasury Secretary, said to the CFA Institute in Boston. There is also an opportunity to help homeowners who are underwater on their mortgages and therefore unable to refinance into a lower interest rate mortgage, amid the current low mortgage interest rates environment, she added. Miller stressed that the Obama administration was interested in reviewing the barriers to refinancing in a bid to help stressed homeowners realize savings. The U.S. housing industry has been suffering its worst slump in decades since 2007. The sharp home price decline and a persisting credit crunch are keeping some potential home buyers from loosening the purse strings, a major drag on the overall U.S. economy.