AFSCME 3357-HOF'S BLOG

FHA Reform Planned to Ease Subprime Mortgage Mess

Brian Montgomery, the Chief of the Federal Housing Administration, announced that the agency would be reforming its programs to provide alternatives to abusive sub-prime mortgages for folks with damaged credit. According to the Reuters article linked, FHA mortgage originations declined from 9.1% of all mortgages in 1996 to 1.8% in 2006. I guessed that the FHA share went down, but I never dreamed it went down by that much. And people say GM is losing market share! This FHA action is welcome, but it's way late. A good portion of the subprime mortgage mess could have been avoided if the FHA would have acted sooner.