Early in his stewardship of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Andrew Cuomo spoke to a group of real estate writers. As he was leaving after the speech, I stopped him and asked if he was planning to reform the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act.

The expression on his face indicated that he hadn't a clue what I was talking about.

"RESPA?" I said, hoping the acronym would help.

Cuomo turned nervously to his aides. One whispered into his ear.

"We're working on it," Cuomo said as he walked briskly from the room.

In the eight years since, efforts have been made to reform RESPA, but no one has been happy with what HUD has come up with. Unlike Cuomo, HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson considers RESPA reform a priority.

The reason: "We're committed to fixing the home-buying process because it is too complicated, too confusing and too costly," Jackson told a recent meeting of the National Association of Real Estate Editors in Washington.

Here's a little history. RESPA was designed to ensure that consumers in real estate transactions would receive timely information on the nature and costs of the settlement process and would be protected from abusive practices.

An important aspect of RESPA is a severe restriction of the interaction permitted among settlement services. It was designed to prohibit kickbacks from, for example, mortgage companies to real estate agents who steered clients to them.

However, because HUD does not set prices on the value of each service, RESPA opens each mortgage transaction to possible litigation. It's a great law if you are a lawyer.

That's only a small part of what is wrong with RESPA -- that and the fact that only the six people in HUD charged with the act's enforcement understand it.

RESPA was flawed to begin with, but its chief drawback is that it was designed to evolve as real estate changed. When Congress wrote the law, there was no Internet. Most home loans were local, and most lenders were the bank the down the street. Most real estate brokerages were small. There was little or no outreach to low and income buyers and minorities.

"Over the last three decades, the mortgage industry has experienced substantial and dynamic change, while HUD's disclosure requirements have remained essentially the same," he said. "There's no question that today's rules governing RESPA don't reflect reality and need to be improved."

It is safe to say that RESPA has not done what its framers had hoped. Considering that it took almost 18 years for HUD to really start enforcing the law, it never seemed too high on anyone's priority list.

"... 30 years later, the closing process can still be a frustrating experience for many," Jackson said. "Consumers frequently complain that they don't understand the charges, and often pay more at the closing table than they thought they had agreed to."

Not only do Americans spend $55 billion every year on closing costs they don't fully understand, they "are severely limited in shopping for settlement services that could significantly lower their costs," he said. About 10 years back, consumers were promised that the Internet would help reduce the costs and complexity of the home-buying process. It hasn't happened. Even Jackson acknowledged that "when we closed on our house in Washington, I didn't read everything that carefully."

And Jackson is a lawyer.

"We started the afternoon before at a certain interest rate," he said. "By 8 the next morning, it had changed, then it again changed at 10 a.m."

"We got to the closing at 11:30 a.m., and they were asking us for $1,500 more," Jackson said.

Based on his experiences alone, I'll bet we'll see some changes to RESPA while Jackson is in charge.

"For most purchases, the bottom-line price is clear and firm," Jackson said. "It should also be clear and firm when it comes to the largest purchase most people will ever make."

HUD hasn't started drafting a new rule yet, because Johnson promised to wait until every group concerned has put its two cents in. That's the reason why previous reform efforts have failed. HUD decided to undertake the process unilaterally, with the result that no one was happy.

Jackson promised that the process would begin this summer, starting with forums with industry and consumer groups.

"Transparency is the best way to convince the American people that reforming RESPA will make the process of buying a home easier, clearer and cheaper," Jackson said.