Shifting Positions

HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson has given varying assessments of the mortgage crisis and of his goal of modernizing Federal Housing Administration lending rules.

October 2006

Interview with Mortgage Banking magazine:

"You know, this is a record-setting housing market that we're in."

"If we can pass the FHA mortgage reform that we're trying to pass, I think that would be extremely helpful -- what we call it is the FHA Modernization Act. What that does is give us a great amount of flexibility. One of the problems that has occurred with FHA is all of the regulations have really hampered us, and we have lost a large portion of the market."

June 2007

Speech on housing crisis at the National Press Club:

"There is no reason to believe we can't reignite the housing market. I'm convinced this spring we will see the market again begin to soar."

March 27, 2008

Speech to the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals:

"Now, the boom is over. We meet this time in a more sobering environment, a time of distress, worry and much concern. . . . We saw some of the coming danger in 2005. That is why we tried to get FHA modernization through, then and now. We could have possibly saved hundreds of thousands of people from going through foreclosure."

SOURCE: HUD Web site and news reports