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Volume 29 - Number 2

January 13, 2012

Fed’s Mortgage Policy Rampage Raises Eyebrows, Underscores Persistence of Housing Recession

It started last week with an unsolicited white paper outlining “a framework for thinking about certain issues and tradeoffs that policymakers might consider” and blossomed into a coordinated assault by the Federal Reserve on the housing slump that won’t go away. Having purchased over $1 trillion in mortgage securities in an effort to drive mortgage interest rates to all-time lows, the Fed appears to be using its speechmaking and paper-writing powers to try to get the rest of Washington moving on housing. In addition to the policy paper, Fed officials in the past week have made three speeches on...

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Are current mortgage underwriting standards too tough?

Yes, they don’t reflect current market conditions and need to be adjusted to allow borrowers with below 700 FICO scores and smaller downpayments to qualify for mortgages.
Yes, and something needs to be done to significantly reduce repurchase or buyback risk so that lenders don’t apply even tougher underwriting overlays.
No, the standards are appropriate given current risks and the major default problems the mortgage market has experienced over the past several years.

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