Mike Calhoun says:
Rep. Maxine Waters has presented a solid proposal on how to carefully reform the nation's housing finance system. The Home Forward Act of 2014 rightly recognizes that any reform to this market must ensure broad credit access for qualified borrowers and a level playing field among lenders of every size.
The HOME Forward Act correctly structures the new system to ensure that the largest lenders do not gain unfair advantage over community lenders. The proposal provides smaller lenders a fair opportunity to compete with the biggest banks and promotes greater affordability for all borrowers in all regions of the country.
The congresswoman's proposal seeks to mitigate the harmful consequences of a hardwired down payment standard by allowing federal regulators the discretion to lower down payment requirements when it makes sense to do so. This approach is a step in the right direction. We encourage Congresswoman Waters to give full authority to the regulator to determine reasonable and sound down payment requirements for qualified borrowers.
Rep. Waters has long championed credit access for ordinary Americans and that commitment is evidenced in the HOME Forward Act.
For more information, contact Catherine An at 202-349-1878 or catherine.an@responsiblelending.org