Obama administration pushes banks to make home loans to people with weaker credit

[denem]

18. The Fine Print: What The Street doesn't like is the facility to refinance existing mortgages

and, at first blush, the Treasury's stance on credit seems reasonable to me:

While lending was too fast and too loose in the run-up to the financial crisis, we’re now in a situation where many families that can effectively take on monthly mortgage obligations are being denied access to credit.

In this regard, the Federal Reserve has a similar outlook. Chairman Bernanke noted that tighter lending standards are probably preventing creditworthy borrowers from buying homes, and this could be slowing the revival in housing and slowing the economic recovery.

While no single metric can pinpoint how far the pendulum has swung the other way, I simply note that the average credit score of the post-2008 books of business for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac range between 750 and 760, about 40 points higher than it was before the crisis. Similarly, FHA’s average credit score for 2012 borrowers is around 700, about 70 points higher than it was before the crisis.

http://www.treasury.gov/press-center/press-releases/Pages/tg1836.aspx