Regulators from the FDIC and Federal Reserve unanimously approved a draft version of mortgage-lending rules that could drastically hike up mortgage costs to potential homeowners. The two main things I took out of the various articles I read were:
A provision in which each bank that bundles and sells mortgages and loans as securities will need to keep 5% of that credit risk (thus hopefully giving incentive for those banks to be more careful with who they lend money to in the first place).
and
the proposal would eventually reset what constitutes a prime mortgage as only those to borrowers who make down payments of at least 20%, with higher equity levels required for refinances. (with about 46% of homeowners having less than 20% equity in their current homes, this would obviously reduce homeownership through higher costs)
There still could be a good amount that changes between now and when the FDIC and Fed enact these changes. It should be an interesting (and very important) story to follow over the next 2-4 months.
The article from the Wall Street Journal is here
