Mortgage rates could rise by as much as 1.5 percentage points for homeowners with weaker credit or smaller down payments under various legislative proposals to overhaul Fannie and Freddie Mac, according to a study prepared for an industry group.
The study purports to estimate what is seen. How about what is unseen? That is, suppose we reduce the distortions in capital markets that funnel money into high-risk mortgages. That means that the interest rate on high-risk mortgages goes up. And…? Some other interest rate goes down. It might even be the interest rate paid by firms undertaking productive investment.
God forbid we let the markets set the interest rates…..because Washington beurocrats are soooo much more knowledgeable about mortgage markets than the banks that have their money on the line.