House Votes To Crack Down on Mortgage Lenders
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WASHINGTON — With home foreclosures skyrocketing, the House yesterday voted to crack down on mortgage lenders by forcing them to get licenses, making them responsible for discovering whether borrowers can really repay, and fining them for steering people toward risky subprime loans.
The measures are designed to keep more people from sinking into the current mortgage crisis, where prospective home owners with shaky credit got mortgages with low interest rates only to see the rates rise and bring monthly mortgages up to prices they cannot afford.
More than 2 million adjustable-rate mortgages are scheduled to reset by the end of 2008.
Many American homeowners are expected to go spiraling into debt, with the number of homes involved in foreclosure proceedings nationwide almost doubling in the third quarter of this year when compared with 2006, according to RealtyTrac Inc.
