Remember way back in 2008 when the Bush administration approved the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act? RESPA included new mortgage lending rules aimed at preventing lenders from charging confiscatory closing costs and slipping in unfavorable interest rate changes. Lending documents were supposed to clarify rather than cloud:

By improving the disclosures borrowers receive when applying for a mortgage, and by promoting comparison shopping, HUD believes its new RESPA regulation will save consumers an average of nearly $700 in mortgage costs.

The federal government gave mortgage lenders the whole of 2009 to get up to speed with the new disclosure policy. Most banks have already complied. Starting on Jan. 1, 2010, the Feds were set to go medieval on any scofflaws.

No longer.

In a press release this week, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced that regulators would "exercise restraint in enforcing new regulatory requirements." The grace period will last 4 months, through April 30.

I can understand the desire not to rock our rickety recessionary boat too much. But lenders have had a year - and in many cases 18 months - to make what amounts to piddling changes to their lending documents. Why is the government going soft?

The irony is that government has squeezed mortgage brokers - whom it blames for helping bring down the housing market - and puffed up the large banks. For all their flaws, mortgage brokers allowed home buyers to shop around for the best interest rates. In the Tampa Bay area, they're being pushed out of business by the banks.