Today’s cookie-cutter mortgage guidelines are hurting the market’s rebirth

For there to be a rebirth of the housing market, we need to move past Fannie and Freddie, Anthony Hsieh says in the Washington Post.

Hsieh contends that though the two government-sponsored enterprises have helped restore confidence and liquidity in mortgage finance during a time of crisis, their continued, absolute control over all mortgage underwriting has become a barrier to homeownership for people who don’t fit the mold of the ideal borrower, such as divorcees, people with a lot of student loan debt, or the self-employed. The rise of nonbank lenders will help the market recover.

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