By LINDA RAWLS
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Saturday, September 01, 2007
Local lenders and real estate professionals agreed Friday that President Bush’s plan to aid homeowners who have fallen behind on their loans is a good start to cleaning up the mortgage mess. But some of them cautioned that any remedy will take time.
“Locally, I don’t expect the proposal from the White House to have much impact on area homeowners,” said Jim Sahnger of Palm Beach Financial Network in Sewall’s Point.
“As many subprime borrowers who originated loans in the past few years did so at elevated home prices,” he said, “many will be unable to qualify, as they won’t have enough equity for the (president’s) program.”
President Bush on Friday announced a three-part plan aimed at helping homeowners facing foreclosure.
He also pledged to seek oversight of the lending industry, a proposal that earned a big round of approval locally.
“For someone to give me a massage, they have to go to school for six months and pass a state licensing exam,” said real estate analyst Jack McCabe of Deerfield Beach.
“A mortgage broker? Nada,” McCabe said. “It’s time we learned from our mistakes that we seem to keep repeating when the dollar signs are abundant.”
In Palm Beach County, one in every 542 households was in foreclosure in July, according to the county clerk’s office. Foreclosure actions quadrupled compared with July 2006.
The Treasure Coast was plagued with troubled homeowners, as well. In St. Lucie County, foreclosures nearly quintupled compared with July 2006, a situation so desperate that one in every 487 households was in foreclosure, according to the St. Lucie clerk’s office.
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