Stabilizing housing market

With Los Angeles' foreclosure rate surging by nearly 300 percent, city housing officials said Wednesday that they hope to help stabilize the market soon with millions of dollars in federal funds that would let them buy and resell homes already or likely to become abandoned. Daily News.

More than $1.2 billion in federal housing aid is expected to be available to California soon, possibly within a month. It is not yet clear how much L.A. would get; funding will be doled out based on need across the state.

Mercedes Marquez, general manager of the Los Angeles Housing Department, said the city is far ahead of other jurisdictions in tracking foreclosures and developing a program to supplement what the market is able to do.

"It's a very difficult line we are walking," Marquez said. "We don't want to replace the market. What we need to do is be strong but flexible in how we approach this."