To the editor:

Senator Moreno is right about one thing: expanding homeownership is essential for Ohio’s future, especially in rural communities.

During my time on Wellsville’s City Council and Board of Education, I saw how a home provided more than shelter. Families who owned their homes put down roots, contributed to the community, and gave their children the stability they needed to succeed in school and beyond. But families can only build that kind of stability if the housing market itself is built on solid ground.

We learned the consequences of weak foundations in 2008. Families were steered into loans that were never built to last, and communities paid the price. Once-tight neighborhoods were pulled apart as foreclosure signs went up, school buses carried fewer children, and local businesses shut their doors. Taxpayers were left to clean up the mess. That collapse showed what happens when families are matched with mortgages they cannot sustain.

Out of that crisis came a commitment to keep families from being misled into mortgages they could not sustain. That is where FICO has played a critical role.

For decades, this credit model has provided lenders with an accurate assessment of risk, helping ensure that families are matched with loans they can realistically manage. The point of a credit score should not be to make the numbers look good on paper; it should be to keep homeownership real, durable, and within reach.

But rather than building on that foundation, the Federal Housing Finance Agency is considering replacing FICO with other models, such as VantageScore 4.0. The concern is that VantageScore often reports higher scores than FICO, giving families a false sense of security about their credit. They may be approved for larger loans and take on payments that push their budgets to the breaking point.

What seems affordable at closing can quickly turn into financial strain, which positions families to lose their homes and weaken the community around them, particularly in rural areas where economic resources are often more limited.

There is another concern as well. Because VantageScore was created by the three major credit bureaus — Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion — adopting it would hand even more power to companies that already dominate credit reporting. That’s not innovation. That’s consolidation. And it leaves families with fewer safeguards and more risk.

Families today approach homeownership with caution, shaped by the lessons of the 2008 financial crisis and the challenges of a changing economy.

Policymakers should not test them with unproven tools. They should provide the protections that give families confidence that their investment is secure. That is how we make homeownership a source of strength for rural Ohio, not another risk that tears communities apart.

John R. Morrow,

Liverpool Township,

Former Wellsville City Councilman

and Wellsville Board of Education member