Remember the housing market meltdown a few years back, along with the ensuing taxpayer-funded bailout of large lending institutions? Well, in an effort to regulate the lending industry and protect the consumer/taxpayer, Congress established the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform andConsumer Protection Act of 2010 (Dodd-Frank Act). Many of its more ambitious new regulations will go into effect January 1, 2014.

The irony? Those changes may make it much more difficult for you to get a mortgage...

"Under the new rules, if [banks] want to lend correctly, by the book, they're going to [have to] leave out a lot of borrowers who would otherwise qualify today for a mortgage," says..... continue reading.