If you want a sobering example of how Washington moves like molasses when it comes to solving real estate problems, just say this word: RESPA.

RESPA is short for the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act. Five years ago, the federal government proposed sweeping changes to the way Americans shop for -- and understand -- their home mortgages.

The proposals were intended to encourage lenders to come clean with home buyers about the true costs and inner workings of loans -- not just the interest rate but all the settlement and title and other closing fees that too often consumers learned about at the last minute.

Had those proposals been adopted back then -- just as the housing boom's toxic mortgage mania was revving up -- some of the foreclosures and loan delinquencies we're seeing today might have been prevented.

But the lending and title industries fought the changes for two years and blocked them. Now a reborn version of RESPA reform is just a couple of weeks away from formal unveiling.

Like the earlier version, the new rule would require lenders' up front "good faith estimates" to bear a close resemblance to the final fees that appear on consumers' settlement sheets.

Unlike the earlier version, however, the new one will force all loan officers to deliver a four page, step-by-step disclosure to applicants that is designed to explain all the working parts -- and potential problems -- of a particular loan.

It will also require loan officers to use a standard script in presenting loan options and features to applicants.

Federal housing officials are expected to begin briefing Congressional committees on the proposal later this month, and then release the plans for up to 90 days of public comment.

Now all this may sound like "too little, too late" -- after all, the mortgage crisis is here and now, and thousands of Americans have ended up with loans they didn't understand or couldn't afford.

But look at the positive side here: People are still taking out mortgages. Consumers still need to know the true costs of what they're signing up for.

Better disclosures -- and the end to eleventh hour settlement fee surprises -- would have been really useful if we had it back in 2003.

But in Washington -- as we've pointed out before -- later is better than never.