tough decisions to redesign the mortgage finance system, but harvard business school professor david scharfstein says the system can be fixed. >> if we do the system right and reform it-- which will involve, i think, more regulation of securitization and a more limited role for government guarantees for most borrowers-- there should not be much of difference and i think we can avoid the kind of crisis that we ended up with. >> reporter: new consumer protections should make mortgages of the future safer, but they will undoubtedly be harder to get, if not impossible, for the 10% to 20% of americans with scarred credit histories. stephanie dhue, "nightly business report," arlington, virginia. >> tom: meanwhile, the u.s. housing market may be starting to perk up. sales of existing homes jumped 10% in september, to just over 4.5 million units. a third of those were distressed sales, which include forclosures. the results were much more than economists expected, and mark the second straight month of rising sales. but as suzanne pratt reports, the housing market is getting hammered by headwinds. >> rep