[Night Hides Not]

Linda, Linda, Linda...

Returning the housing industry to normal is going to take at least five years, so why not get it right?

Financially, the biggest problem our nation has is Leverage, i.e. we're over-leveraged: Wall Street, the federal debt, credit cards, student loans...need I go on?

I don't know where the bottom is on housing prices, but it's obvious we aren't there yet.

20% too steep? What's wrong with 15% combined with a credit score of 720+ and verifiable income for the past 3 years?

Beats the heck out of someone with a credit score of 550 and no verifiable income getting a home loan for $600K.

[RockinRight]

I’d even say 10% if you have other assets out there and over a 720 FICO.

Less than 10% is really where things get hairy...but I’ll even concede that 3% down FHA loans really didn’t have major losses until they started using it as a subprime substitute.

[Angry_White_Man_Syndrome]

I agree with your basic idea accept for the credit score. Credit scores only show haw good you are at using credit cards. Banks need to start looking at peoples budgets. My credit score is low, but it is because the only debt I have had in the last 3 years is a mortgage. I don’t even have a credit card.

[hinckley buzzard]

Credit ratings sound like an attractive criterion, but history says beware. Look at what happened to the security ratings rendered by S&P and Moodys when the banks wanted to securitize their garbage mortgages-- somehow magically the ratings agencies found them to be rated AAA.

If you want to see credit ratings inflated out of all proportion, just make the whole housing industry dependent on high scores. When everyone has a credit rating of 750, then everyone can buy a house! What a great idea!