Policy Backfire: Washington has pushed hard since the 1990s to increase homeownership. And what did we get for the effort? Homeownership in America is now at its lowest point in this century.

IBD Editorials

EXCERPTS:

But don’t be fooled. Frank, a zealous advocate for boosting homeownership, is at the center of the housing problem and the financial meltdown — along with his retired Democratic Senate colleague from Connecticut, Chris Dodd.

“Increasing homeownership among minorities and other people of low or moderate incomes,” Sowell wrote last year, was part of a “political crusade” that both parties took part in.

But it was Democrats who pushed it hardest — and who stood in the way when Republicans tried to reform it.

It was Clinton’s manipulation of the CRA, once called an extortion scheme against the nation’s banks by then Senate Banking Committee Chairman Phil Gramm, that forced banks to meet a quota for inner-city and low-income mortgages — and led to the meltdown.

The current fall in home ownership is what should be expected when government tries to micromanage an industry. Expect similar disasters as busybody politicians insert themselves into energy, health care, manufacturing, finance and other private enterprises.

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