A Farewell to Homes: A Drama by Barney Frank

John Ransom

The geniuses running things now days have come up with an excellent way to bring down foreclosure rates: Make the down payment on a house so big that only rich people, who we are going tax extra anyway, can afford to buy homes.

Talk about creating class envy. Way to go Obama! Another mission accomplished.

So let’s say that the median home price is $163,000, more or less. Under the Obama proposal- authored by top housing experts Rep. Barney Frank (D- Fannie Mae) and Senator Chris Dodd (D- Countrywide Mortgage)- one would have to put down 20 percent or $32,600, regardless of credit history or income in order to qualify for a conforming mortgage.

The alternative would be paying a risk premium to the bank.

To quote the movie Billy Madison, I think I speak for all of us in saying I’m a little dumber for having read this proposal by Dodd-Frank for solving the sub-prime housing crisis in America.

Only the guys who tried to solve the problem of the federal government being too involved in the mortgage business by making the federal government more involved in the mortgage business would try to solve the sub-prime housing crisis by making us all sub-prime borrowers.

Barney Frank's stupidity can only be matched by the people who vote for him time after time to represent them.

“We need to strike a balance between reducing investor risk and providing affordable mortgage credit. Better underwriting and credit quality standards have greatly reduced risk. Adding unnecessarily high minimum down payment requirements will only exclude hundreds of thousands of buyers from home ownership, despite their creditworthiness and proven ability to afford the monthly payment, because of the dramatic increase in the wealth required to purchase a home,â€