By Lisa Mascaro

Sun, Mar 2, 2008 (2 a.m.)

Washington — Lawmakers returned to town after a brief recess, but the slim list of accomplishments by week’s end was a reminder of the partisan gridlock that was foretold for this presidential election year.

Tops on the agenda were bills that are unlikely to see much support from Republicans on either end of Pennsylvania Avenue no matter how much Democrats cajole, threaten or nudge the other party to action.

The House passed energy legislation knowing perfectly well it is likely to die in the Senate. The same thing happened with a similar bill last year.

The Senate tried unsuccessfully to launch a foreclosure relief package to clean up the mortgage mess that is hitting Nevada harder than anywhere else in the nation.

Nevada topped the country in foreclosures per household in January, according to a report from RealtyTrac, an online real estate service. More than 6,000 foreclosure filings were reported — nearly twice as many as in last January.

But by midweek, the White House announced it would likely veto the housing package introduced by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, in large part because of a provision that would allow bankruptcy judges to reset the value of some mortgages in foreclosure to the property’s current value.

Bankers fought the provision, arguing it would force them to raise interest rates on future borrowers. They found allies in Republicans.

From his office at UNLV’s Lied Institute for Real Estate Studies, professor Terrence Clauretie said he understands the banking industry’s concerns. If loans become riskier, the cost goes up.

But would it be worth it to risk costlier mortgages down the road for the immediate benefit of helping Nevada families lower their mortgage payments and avoid foreclosure? Is the mortgage mess bad enough in places such as Southern Nevada to warrant such a seemingly drastic step?

“I can’t answer that,” Clauretie said Friday.

Clauretie wrote the textbook on real estate finance, and is in the process of adding a chapter this summer on the subprime mess. His classes regularly discuss what is happening in Las Vegas.

Although government intervention is always a risk, he noted, it’s not unprecedented. A freeze on foreclosures was put in place during the Great Depression. Some states, including California, went on to pass laws that prevented banks from going after homeowners’ other assets to pay outstanding mortgages. Nevada has no such protection.

Other provisions of Reid’s bill are more generally embraced.

The package includes $200 million for pre-foreclosure counseling to help families get on a better financial footing, as well as $4 billion for communities to purchase and rehab foreclosed homes.

Another provision would allow local housing authorities to get into the business of refinancing, giving homeowners who don’t qualify at banks another avenue for restructuring their mortgage. President Bush had called for such a program in his State of the Union speech in January, and Republican Rep. Jon Porter of Nevada has introduced a companion bill in the House.

All those would certainly help, Clauretie said.

But for now, the housing package is stalled as Democrats and Republicans fight over the procedure for bringing it forward.

It’s the gridlock that was promised at the start of the year. All eyes will be on the presidential nominating contests this week in Texas and Ohio. That makes it hard to generate movement on the Hill.