Gwen Moore: “I'll be brief. I hope that with Mr. Frank's bill, we can see that these exotic products have created a crisis in the…”

“I'll be brief. I hope that with Mr. Frank's bill, we can see that these exotic products have created a crisis in the mortgage industry. But as Attorney General Cuomo from New York said, any real estate scam, at the very base and root of it, is a faulty and a bad appraisal. This is a very commonsense regulation, and I congratulate Mr. Kanjorski and my other co-authors for bringing this forward. This amendment is about putting the interests of homebuyers first. Buying a home is daunting enough without having to worry that the people that supposedly work for you aren't on your side. The safeguards in this amendment--the independence standards for appraisers and provisions that strengthen Federal oversight of the appraisal process will assure homebuyers that the home they are purchasing hasn't been inflated in 'perceived' value by an unscrupulous appraiser. A bad appraisal can also make it impossible for a subprime borrower to refinance--what happens when they try to get into a prime loan and a responsible bank wants a responsible appraisal done? That's when the other shoe drops and the homeowner finds out they've been duped. These safeguards would protect consumers, but would also benefit the secondary market and our economy. When a mortgage is sold on the secondary market, investors need to know that the securities they hold are backed up by a home that has been appraised accurately.”