Lenient lending the answer to housing crisis

According to an appraiser from Miller Samuel Inc., tighter lending standards are keeping the real estate market from growing.

Jonathan Miller, president and chief executive of the New York-based company, recently told Bloomberg that if banks made the standards for lending less strict, the housing market might work its way toward a full recovery.

“We would probably have a housing boom with the rates that mortgage levels are at,” Miller said in an interview on Bloomberg Television's "Surveillance Midday."

Mortgages are experiencing record lows, reporting a record 3.87 percent decline on 30-year mortgages in the country. Home loan borrowing is expected to drop in 2012 to the lowest levels in 15 years.

President Barack Obama recently said he will ask Congress for legislation to give homeowners an easier method of refinancing into lower-rate loans following Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke pointing to tight lending standards as an obstacle to a housing and broader economy recovery.

According to Fitch Ratings, a sharp rise in cost to service mortgage loans is expected in 2012, which might make it difficult for Americans who were planning to pack moving boxes to move into an affordable home.