Goldhaber Policy Services, LLC

Developing Strategies & Shaping Policy for Effective Outcomes

Penalty Box

I am launching the Housing Insights blog to create a place where people who care about the substantive issues facing housing and mortgage finance can share thoughts and ideas in a non-acrimonious nature.

I have been involved in housing and mortgage finance issues — both private and public sector – since 1981. There is an extraordinary imbalance in our housing and mortgage finance system today. I recognize there’s an appropriate place for the public sector, but there is a critical need for private capital in the housing sector and in neighborhoods across the country.

It seems like financial regulation is headed toward a permanent penalty box mentality, which will result in less lender participation and less choice for the consumer. There is no question that in the mid-2000s there were significant failures throughout housing and mortgage finance. But if the penalty box continues to be the sole regulatory framework, housing, the consumer, and the US economy will be the long-term losers.

All participants in the housing and mortgage finance sectors need to work together, along with regulators and policy makers, to forge a forward-looking approach to housing that creates an environment that incents the private sector participation that will allow housing to flourish, while limiting the excesses of the past.

The conversation can begin here, and I encourage others to make this Housing Insights blog a forum to share constructive views on this vital issue.

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