Boosting the way to the dream of homeownership

Jeff Jacoby argues against the Biden administration’s changes in regulations for government-backed mortgages (“Your credit score is excellent, so prepare to be penalized,” Opinion, April 26). He neglects to point out that the administration is making an attempt to be fiscally responsible. Unlike the Republican tax cuts with no plan to make up the shortfall, the Biden administration realized that in order to try to help more people access the American dream and wealth creation of homeownership, the administration needed to be able to pay for it.

To bring up the 2008 banking crisis, as Jacoby does, is fear mongering at the expense of the less fortunate. Government deregulation of the banking industry led to egregious banking practices, “teaser rates,” “balloon loans,” and collateralized mortgage securities. The collapse is on the banking industry, not the poor people gulled into believing that they, too, could be part of the American dream.

If Jacoby truly believes in the law of supply and demand, perhaps he could acknowledge that another possible outcome of the changes, rather than people being priced out of the market, is that more housing will be built to meet the rising demand.

Jeff Jacoby’s April 26 column is typical of right-wing zerosum thinking: Anything that helps lower-income people get ahead is bad for us comfortable folks. In 2007, I got a lucky break: With a credit rating in the low 600s and a down payment of less than 10 percent, I was able to become a firsttime home buyer at age 55. Today my credit score is 841 and I have a lot of equity in my home. I wouldn’t begrudge anyone getting the same kind of opportunity I was fortunate to have.

Jeff Jacoby’s opinion piece about mortgage rates ends with a reference to “lower-income earners” and how they need to “pay their bills faithfully [and] live within their means.” He omits the fact that low-wage jobs don’t provide means to live within.