Biden’s New Mortgage Payment Rule: Woke or Justified?

First it was the lights in your house, then it was your car, and now is Joe Biden planning to turn your mortgage into another tool in his “woke” agenda? Joe Biden is set to impose a monetary penalty on individuals with good credit scores who seek a mortgage in order to help those with lower credit scores is a highly controversial move. Using its rule power over agencies like the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), which regulates federal mortgage guarantors Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the administration is seeking to change the country’s mortgage policies in the name of income redistribution.

According to a recent Wall Street Journal editorial, this new rule will result in mortgage fees for borrowers with good credit being raised in order to subsidize higher-risk borrowers. Under the rule, which went into effect on May 1st, homebuyers with a credit score of over 680 will pay an additional $40 per month on a $400,000 loan, with the fees increasing for larger loans and those who make down payments of 20% or more. These fees will then be used to subsidize lower fees for higher-risk borrowers. For more information, Lars speaks with Roger Valdez, Director of the Center for Housing Economics and a Research Fellow at the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity (FREOPP).