This may not be the best venue for this but I think it will impact many of you in this forum so I will put caution aside and go for it. In the interest of brevity I will throw out a few bullet points and encourage anyone it strikes a cord with to talk to their local mortgage person for a broader explanation.

As a result of the so called "mortgage debacle", our federal government has decreed multiple changes relating to the mortgage industry. Some are already in place and some will be implemented over the next few months. Most of these changes are knee jerk reactions written by ill-advised politicians or political cronies with an agenda. Many of these "improvements" to the industry are having unintended negative consequences for the buyer/borrower.

Radical changes to the two main disclosure documents along with narrow margins for human error in some areas and zero tolerance for error in other areas. Net effect, mortgage lenders will almost certainly increase their average profit margins to offset potential human error related losses and new monetary (punitive) penalties if these narrow margins are exceeded.

New, federally mandated rules dictating how a Loan Originator can and can not be compensated. This one rule is expected to decrease a Loan Originator's income by 30 to 60 percent. This reduction in income is driving and will continue to drive many good Loan Originators into other fields and less knowledgeable, less seasoned, lower paid (think less motivated) workers will be stepping in to take their place. Net effect, dumbing down the industry, slowing down the process, faster and increased no's for the hard files, slower yes's for the easy files.

The compensation rule which reduces a Lender�s overall profit margin is also wreaking havoc with First Time Buyer programs because the lower allowable profit margins on typically lower loan amounts and more difficult files is causing many Lenders to consider opting out of those programs.

Recent Federal recommendation to increase minimum down payment to 10% on a Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac loan. Net effect, drive higher risk, lower down payment Borrowers directly into FHA loans. FHA is a department of the Federal Government which means you and I will insure each of those loans against default verses a private entity guarantying those loans.

Recent Federal recommendation to increase the cost of borrowing from Fannie and Freddie. Net effect, higher cost to borrow drives more buyers out of the market which brings down home prices.

Recent Federal recommendation to pare-down Fannie and Freddie and transfer their mission to the free market. As government sponsored entities, Fannie and Freddie enjoyed certain tax incentives not applicable to a free market solution. Net effect, increased cost to borrow. Not to mention, it was the "private entities" that concocted the truly toxic mortgages in the first place. And they did this in the late 70's with bad results then again in early 2000's.

All of the above changes plus a plethora of additional changes too numerous to detail here has slowed down the entire process start to finish. The onerous regulations have created an environment where lenders are now spending as much time on compliance as they are actually processing the loan request. Net effect, slower turn times, decreased productivity, higher cost to the consumer.

Not to mention these changes also create an environment where the larger lenders with their mega software packages and army of attorneys and compliance consultants have the advantage over smaller, local lenders. Net effect, Too Big To Fail gets even bigger.

A housing specialist with Standard & Poors was quoted on the Internet today echoing some of these same observations. But for the most part, this story is going unreported and it is the consumer who will ultimately pay the price.

Bottom line? If you want to buy a home, do it now while the cost to borrow is near historic lows and there are still knowledgeable people in the industry to help you jump through the ever increasing line of flaming hoops. Buy a home you can live with for a very long time because housing recovery is going to take a very, very long time. Maybe even a lifetime.

Scott