Number of loans made to satisfy housing policies is overestimated
"Wallison and Pinto incorrectly interpret the affordable housing goals for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac ... roughly 65 percent of the “high-risk” loans they attribute to the affordable housing goals were actually ineligible for the goals" - David Min
Two classes of high-risk loan are identified:
  • Subprime, meaning that the borrower has poor credit history,
  • Alt-A, meaning that the borrower has good credit, but the loan terms make the loan higher risk.  (This includes a high loan-to-property-value ratio, no documentation of the borrower's income, adjustable rate loans, etc)
While the exact definitions are controversial, in any case few Alt-A loans would count towards affordable housing goals.  So the impetus to make these loans is not affordable housing policies.
CONTEXT(Help)
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The Global Financial Crisis »The Global Financial Crisis
Long-term causes of the financial crisis? »Long-term causes of the financial crisis?
Unintended consequences of earlier public policy choices »Unintended consequences of earlier public policy choices
US policies to encourage home ownership promoted risky lending »US policies to encourage home ownership promoted risky lending
Number of loans made to satisfy housing policies is overestimated
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