The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, the most common way U.S. buyers finance a home purchase, isn’t the ideal instrument its supporters claim it to be.

In less than twenty-five years, government “affordable housing” and other housing policies have turned a healthy market into a financial ruin. Until Fannie and Freddie’s market dominance and the government’s role in the housing finance system are substantially reduced or eliminated, the United States will continue to have an inferior and unstable housing market.

The National Association of Realtors (NAR), which pushed Congress to give FHA yet more responsibilities, is now trying to show that the agency is not really insolvent. But the slippery "facts" they are using show how tenuous their argument is.

Improved mortgage disclosure to consumers is an important goal everyone can agree on--especially in the wake of the subprime mortgage bust, in which many defaulting borrowers appear not to have understood the obligations they were undertaking. A good mortgage finance system requires that borrowers understand how the loan will work,...

History has shown--and simple economics would anticipate--that a government subsidy for a freely prepayable 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is not good policy.

President Obama in his State of the Union Address proposed that legislation be passed authorizing FHA to provide all homeowners that are current on their mortgage the opportunity to refinance at today's record low rates.

The Federal Reserve's proposed mortgage disclosures correctly focus on presenting key information to borrowers, but the information presented should be more oriented around whether the borrower can afford the loan in question.

A system that lets participants choose between the traditional system and a lower-cost settlement paid in inflation-adjusted Treasuries could ensure the program's solvency.