Bob Menendez: “I said that we were going to be facing a tsunami of foreclosures. Some people said that was an overestimation.…”

“I said that we were going to be facing a tsunami of foreclosures. Some people said that was an overestimation. Unfortunately, we have not even seen the full effect of that tsunami as we have hundreds of thousands of mortgages reset every quarter for the next 2 years, and at the rate of default and foreclosures, the numbers will grow dramatically. Of course, that has a consequence to all of those American families for which the American dream becomes the American nightmare. It has a consequence to neighborhoods and communities where those properties, if they go into foreclosure, have a negative effect on the values of the adjoining properties and, obviously, on those communities as it relates to the consequence of property values that continue to take a nosedive. Therefore, it has an enormous impact on the lives of people across our country. It also has a very significant impact as it relates to the economy of our Nation. I am glad, working in the committee, that we are here today to pass this important bill, the FHA Modernization Act.”