An interesting article by John Stossell in the Post-Tribune:

The Federal Housing Administration announced this week that it wants tougher rules on mortgage lenders. It’s about time.

Maybe FHA got spooked by the recent New York Times story titled “Easy Loans to Wealthier Areas,” which said: “In its efforts to prop up a shattered housing market, the government is greatly extending its traditional support of real estate, including guaranteeing the mortgages of middle-class and even upper-class buyers against default” (http://tinyurl.com/y8lbeod ).

The Times explained that San Francisco, one of the priciest real estate markets in the country, had no government-insured mortgages two years ago, but now “the government is guaranteeing an average of six mortgages a week here. … The Federal Housing Administration is underwriting loans at quadruple the rate of three years ago even as its reserves to cover defaults are dwindling.”

And some of those loans are surely questionable.

The Times explains that 27-year-old Mike Rowland and his friends were able to buy a two-unit apartment building for almost a million dollars. “They had only a little cash to bring to the table but, with the federal government insuring the transaction, a large down payment was not necessary.”

“It was kind of crazy we could get this big a loan,” Rowland said.

Yes, it was crazy. Such policies do not end well. Young Rowland gets that. Even the Times does: “With government finances already under great strain, the policy expansions are creating new risks for American taxpayers.”

But our leaders plunge ahead, with your money. Has the administration forgotten that today’s financial mess was precipitated in part by government’s moves to encourage mortgage lending to unqualified or at best unproven borrowers? In the 1990s, the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, concerned that blacks and Hispanics were “underserved,” issued guidelines to banks stating: “Policies regarding applicants with no credit history or problem credit history should be reviewed. Lack of credit history should not be seen as a negative factor …” (http://tinyurl.com/d3aa28 ).

Soon, the lower standards spilled into the prime-mortgage market.

Read the rest.

Posted in: Housing Market
Tags: easy loans, federal housing administration, federal reserve bank, financial mess, Housing Market, insured mortgages, mortgage lenders