Remember the proposed requirement from six federal agencies that home buyers make down payments of at least 20 percent if they want the lowest interest rates?
Remember the controversy that erupted over the plan last spring, when labor unions joined with bankers, civil rights groups, mortgage companies, real estate agents and consumer advocates to try to make sure it didn’t take effect? A bipartisan group of 39 senators and more than 250 Democrats and Republicans in the House even signed letters demanding that the agencies ditch the proposal on grounds that it would greatly harm a housing market in deep trouble.
Half a year has passed since then, so here’s an update: The 20-percent proposal is still alive, but it’s temporarily bogged down in agency reviews of the roughly 12,000 comments filed by interest groups and individuals. It almost certainly would not be ready for adoption until the first quarter of 2012. Even then, there would be a mandatory one-year lag before the requirement could take effect, pushing the issue into 2013 — well after the presidential and congressional elections.
Read the rest of the article at The Washington Post
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