NYT Editorial Board: Blaming Housing Bust on Borrowers Is Too Simplistic

The three-percent-down program unveiled by federal mortgage regulator Melvin Watt isn’t just an effort to revive the still-recovering housing industry.

The New York Times’ Editorial Board argues that this new government plan is also a challenge to the enduring misperception that people who lost their homes during the bust shouldn’t have been owners in the first place, as many defaults in the bust were rooted in reckless and predatory lending that boosted lenders’ profits while stripping borrowers equity.

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