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So, I guess we now must teach borrowers to worsen their credit before applying for a mortgage to get a better price. 'Now perhaps that's a bit of an exaggeration, and yes, I totally recognize and appreciate the effort to bring more people into homeownership who have traditionally not had that opportunity. But using Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for these types of political purposes is not well advised, especially at this juncture.

According to mortgage industry specialists, homebuyers with credit scores of 680 or higher will pay about $40 per month more on a home loan of $400,000. Homebuyers who make down payments of 15% to 20% will get hit with the largest fees. These changes can only serve to frustrate homebuyers with high credit scores and homeowners seeking to refinance because the rule punishes them for their relatively strong financial positions.

Penalizing borrowers with larger down payments and credit scores will not go over well, it overcomplicates things for consumers during a process that can already feel overwhelming. Nor is the timing of this rule change well-advised, having just endured a 3+-percentage-point increase in mortgage rates over a very short period now is certainly not the time to raise fees on homebuyers.

To quote David Stevens, a former head of the Mortgage Bankers Association who was commissioner of the Federal Housing Administration under the Obama administration, the new rules don’t make sense.

“The gap in homeownership opportunity is real,” Stevens says. “America is facing a severe shortage of affordable homes for sale, combined with excessive demand, causing an imbalance. But convoluting pricing and credit is not the way to solve this problem.”