Mortgage underwriting should be stripped down to the bare essentials

BloombergView columnist Barry Ritholtz argues that today’s mortgage application process is “surreal.”

Ritholtz describes the extreme requests that many banks ask of loan applicants, based on his own personal experience in getting a mortgage. He adds that bankers have not learned the most important lesson from the crisis, that it's smart underwriting not looseness or tightness that allows banks to make money in the housing sector.

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