I have to think that no matter what happens in the 2008 election, by next winter it’ll be too late to do much of anything. If Congress doesn’t pass a bipartisan bill (or the banks do something similar voluntarily) this year, one of two things will happen:

1. Housing will bottom on its own next winter & spring, before a hypothetical Democratic government could change anything meaningful.

2. 2008 will look a lot like 2007. Houses now or nearly at the NOD stage will foreclose and flood the market, adding another 6 months of inventory; credit availability and demand drops, prices fall 15-20% further, pulling another N million mortgages into foreclosure. Either the banks will work out mortgage reductions on their own, or the inventory on the market will be so large by the time the Democrats take office that nothing short of burning down the excess supply will fix it.