Push for greater govt role in home finance

New York

AT a conference on housing finance last month, a group of investors described their innovative "rent-to-own" products. Rent-to-own schemes have long exploited the poor. Naturally, marketers address that problem with euphemisms. Today, it's called lease purchase. The arrangements work in myriad permutations, but the basic deal is that a person rents a home and pays for an option to buy it at a later date.

All the panellists hailed the product, calling it a "yield enhancer" that would increase profits. In a standard lease, one panellist explained, the owner covers costs such as taxes, maintenance cost and insurance. With lease purchase, the tenant pays those expenses. And it's easier to evict because the occupant has only a rental agreement. It's not a foreclosure proceeding against an owner, after all.