In a little-noticed report issued in February, the Bipartisan Policy Center's Housing Commission recently painted an interesting picture of the future role of the federal government in housing finance. Titled Housing Future: New Directions for National Policy, the paper takes a view that is both long and deep-long in looking at a multi-year time horizon and deep in probing demographic and policy considerations, as well as the obvious market-based influences.
The paper helps to define the gap between a healthy private housing finance system and what we have now.
The good news is that many of the elements of a healthy system seem to be just around the corner.