Computers change US mortgage lending-study - 2004-01-10
The U.S. housing market has been revolutionized by software utilized by lenders to process credit decisions, a trend spurred largely by mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, a government study said on Friday.

The study, published by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, said computer models established in the mid-1990s by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to process home loan requests boosted the use of "automated underwriting" in U.S. home finance.
Read the full story at Reuters

Renters Soon Get Opportunity To Boost Credit Records - 2004-01-10
Should millions of American renters' on-time payments to landlords be disregarded as important elements of their credit files when they want to buy a first home? Should their credit scores routinely be depressed as a result?

Aren't on-time payments of rent functionally the same as on-time mortgage payments? Isn't the same true for on-time utility, phone and insurance payments, none of which typically make it into credit files?
Read the full story at Washington Post