http://finance.yahoo.com/news/eu-seeks-avoid-housing-bubbles-221446384.html;_ylt=AtuvSYd1za7WnqT9qB225OuiuYdG;_ylu=X3oDMTNyNWNuamlhBG1pdANGUCBUb3AgU3RvcnkgTGVmdARwa2cDZWFkODA3MjEtMTBhZC0zZWM1LWJjMzktNzc0NjE2ODI5MGRjBHBvcwMxBHNlYwN0b3Bfc3RvcnkEdmVyAzA4YWY5ZTMwLWFhZDEtMTFlMi1iZmNhLTM3NWIwYzFkOTFlNg--;_ylg=X3oDMTFkcW51ZGliBGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRwc3RhaWQDBHBzdGNhdANob21lBHB0A3BtaA--;_ylv=3

"The legislation will force lenders in Europe's 6.5 trillion euro ($8.5 trillion) mortgage market to check the creditworthiness of potential customers and their ability to repay, effectively banning self-certified or "liar" loans.

The rules would also make it illegal for those carrying out credit checks within banks and other lenders to have their pay linked to the number of mortgages they approve - a practice blamed for encouraging irresponsible lending in the past."

They are trying to close the problems that created the housing bubble (loans to people who cant afford them, and stopping basing pay off of number of loans given out) while here in the us we are getting ready for a repeat of the housing bubble.

I'm not going to comment that this is or isn't the best solution for the US. But not solution will happen in the US until politicians stop trying to get voters on their side by trying to look like the party that gives free stuff out, like home loans people don't qualify for.

Short answer? Cultural differences. In the US owning home is essentially synonymous with the "American Dream".

A few Europeon countries have higher or equal rates of home ownership... but not many.

That and an concentrated effort to improve minority home ownership... which is started up again because the GFC basically devastated minority home ownership to pre-1990 levels.

Even just getting rid of "signing" bonuses doesn't work.  Since if you did that nobody would ever lend to peole remotely risky since all that could happen is defaults that hurt your record.

It'd be interesting to see minority home ownership levels in europeon countries.... yet i can't really find any reports.  If similar to pay and unemployment gap differences i'd guess a decent amount of europeon countries are worse off... but it's likely not seen as bad as a problem since people don't see owning as essential.

A lot of europe just seems to have real issues with race based statistics actually.  (And integration coincidentally.)

Congress: If it's not broken, fix it.

Variable rate mortgages are what made everyone loose their homes. The market goes up, they raise yoyr rate, your sol. Most ppl could have afforded their homes if they were smart enough to sign fixed rates. So know europe didnt get it right in this legislation. They just want you to think its all gonna be better

http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-04-02/business/38220144_1_housing-recovery-housing-market-housing-officials

Because as the link above shows we have idiots running the US.

Albert Einstein said it best when he said "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

There is nothing inherently wrong with variable rate loans though, interest rates can rise or fall, if you are smart enough to be able to read the state of the economy (inflation figures, jobless rates) then you can easily predict the direction the rates will go and act accordingly. Anyway if you can't afford a 2% increase then you can't afford the loan, the problem arises when people get swept up in building/buying their dream home and borrow to their absolute limit to get there so that if rates do go up they are stuffed. 

Personally, though I believe bank regulation can be good (it blew my mind when I read about the ninja loans in the us) a lot of the responsibility should still rest with the person actually borrowing the money, if you aren't savvy enough to work out what you can and can't afford then you should get yourself educated, the info is out there. In a capitalist world, teaching the basics of finance is as important as grammar IMO.

Surely this bill is just common sense. Don't give loans to those who can't afford it

Law only get passed in america based on money.

A politition only endorses something if they get something out of it. Whether its more money for their state or helping out someone who will donate money for next election.

There is no point talking about why america doesn't do anything or does something. It's all because of self serving polititions, everyone of them. Everyone thinks its our two party system that is the problem, no it don't matter if there is 1 party or 1000 parties. THe polititions themselves are whats corrupt. If you look at every law passed you will find little provisions in them all that end up benefiting some company, state ,ect that has absolutely NOTHING to do with the law.

If a law makes sense, they won't pass it even if they are for it, until they can get soemthing out of it for themselves.

We got those things in Europe also.