On the recordMay 26, 2010
I thank the gentleman from Florida for his passionate commitment to seniors. I'd like to address this whole issue of mortgages. You know, so many Americans have seen their homes being foreclosed on over the last 2 to 3 years. The numbers are staggering. We're talking about, 7, 8, 9 million homes. And I think that there's a misconception that somehow those are all younger families, but the truth is many of these people are senior citizens. One of the protections in the Wall Street reform is that we are going to deal with banning predatory mortgage lending, and I want to just share with you one example. This is back in 2000, at the age of 57, Willie Howard, who, at long last, became a homeowner. He had this tiny house here in Washington, DC, of 963 square feet. Now, Willie never learned how to read, so he proved to be an easy touch for refinancing offers as the housing bubble inflated. By May of 2005, his $108,000 loan had ballooned to $137,000 because he had been courted by mortgage brokers who wanted to suggest that he could, in fact, save more money. By October of 2006, after four more refinancings, Mr. Howard's loan balance had ballooned to $238,000. Now, half of the increased debt came from $51,000 in points, fees, prepayment penalties, and negative amortization. So it really was all about the scam artists; in this case, a mortgage broker who wanted to churn.
