The financial industry is taking another run at a plan to help homeowners, this time the proposed program in San Bernardino County that would use eminent domain laws to acquire underwater mortgages and then refinance them for borrowers at market rates. The financial services lobbying group SIFMA said they would exclude mortgages in San Bernardino and other localities that engaged in this tactic

The bid by the private company Mortgage Resolution Partners to team with municipalities and use eminent domain laws to purchase underwater mortgages and then refinance them at a discount to the borrower has generated lots of attention at the wonk level. Now the White House has weighed in, and expressed skepticism.

The reason I initially contacted Rep. Brad Miller today was to discuss an issue that has come into vogue this week as a potential solution to the housing crisis. San Bernardino County is considering a partnership with Mortgage Resolution Partners on a scheme that would condemn underwater mortgages through the process of eminent domain, and then refinance those mortgages with the borrower. If it works, this would save the individual borrowers tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of dollars and remove the vulnerability of being underwater; provide an economic stimulus to struggling municipalities; and provide MRP with a tidy profit on the new mortgage, after buying the old mortgage at a large discount through eminent domain.