Last year, Colorado’s foreclosure rate led the nation for eight months, according to Realty Trac, a California company that tracks foreclosure filings. County public trustees in the Denver area reported record foreclosures for a single year. The foreclosure wave, has stemmed from 100- percent home loans, gift programs that sidestepped a requirement for down payments on federally insured loans, fraudulent sales that permitted borrowers to walk away with cash and an environment of aggressive building and loose lending practices, among other factors.
Peter Groff, president pro tem of the Colorado Senate, and Democratic Rep. Rosemary Marshall have invited real-estate and lending-industry leaders and others to a round table meeting today at the Capitol. At Groff’s meeting today, Michael Hancock, city councilman for the foreclosure-racked Montbello neighborhood in Denver, plans to suggest stricter regulation and law enforcement in a state that has just begun to register mortgage brokers.
Most people studying the problem believe it’s important to move toward licensing, with standards and guidelines for mortgage lenders.
Chris Holbert, president of the Colorado Mortgage Lenders Association, said lenders would support legislation that enables license suspensions or civil suits against anyone, including borrowers, engaging in a pattern of deceptive practices on home loans.
Under Colorado’s new mortgage-broker-registration law, “you could be denied registration for a misdemeanor crime. But if you had a huge civil judgment against you, you can’t be denied,” he said The lenders association contends licensing standards for mortgage brokers and loan officers have not reduced foreclosures in other states.
Posted by:
Jeffery McClintock
Categories:
Real Estate Market
Mortgages
