Salt Lake City, UT / November 12, 2006 / Press Release / --  Knowing your lender has really come to mean knowing yourself.  As more and more of Utah's families stretch every dollar to make the monthly mortgage, many are wondering how they arrived at such a financial burden. 

Technology advancement has reshaped the landscape of the mortgage lending arena.   As more banks add branch locations so too is the increase of lender loan programs such as reverse mortgages, no interest loans and creative Adjustable Rate Mortgages (ARMs) to mention a few. 

Michael Calhoun, President of the Center for Responsible Lending is urging policymakers to address the financial burden placed on home owners through new forms of mortgage lending especially high-risk "exploding" ARMS in the subprime market.  "Nontraditional loans in the subprime market are seriously eroding the traditional benefit of homeownership," said Mr. Calhoun.  "By their very nature, they pose a high risk of losing valuable home equity or foreclosure," he added.

Even worse than non-traditional lenders are the new crop of lending sources invented by real estate investment groups that act like the traditional financial lender with one big oversight, there's no regulatory body to ensure that the interest of the consumer is best served. 

"We have seen an explosion of consumers being steered into one-stop shops that offer consumers private listings of properties that the investment group controls within the State of Utah," says Sheri Fitzpatrick, Utah Real Estate Broker and CEO of Perfect Home Living INC., a Non-Profit Organization based in Salt Lake City, UT, committed to the education of consumers, financial institutions and law enforcement agencies on loopholes used during  predatory lending practices and other symptoms of real estate fraud by white collar criminals. 

"Once the consumer has been steered into selecting a property, they are steered into using the other services of the one stop shop - the appraiser, realtor, mortgage lender, mortgage broker and title company.  But most alarming are these hybrid forms of ARMs and nontraditional mortgages that keep popping up," Fitzpatrick added.

While some of the new forms of lending may be appropriate within Utah's housing market, a vast majority of Utah's consumers remain confused by how low "teaser" interest rates work and more importantly, they lack the understanding for consequences associated with these new forms of hybrid loans. 

"Whether its a first-time home buyer, Middle Market Housing upgrade or downgrade or an uninformed real estate investor, these hybrid loans are definitely predatory and the end result is places like Utah with a relatively small population of 2.5 million ranking second in the nation for mortgage fraud and above national averages for bankruptcy and credit card dependency," Fitzpatrick continued. 

The problem of hybrid loans in both the prime and subprime markets is becoming a bigger concern as financial industry giants continue to forge new paths to mortgage loan structuring.      

According to Barron's, during the next two years homeowners can expect increased monthly payments on an estimated $600 billion of subprime mortgages. 

About Perfect Home Living 

Perfect Home Living assists in implementing programs and providing training to financial lenders as well as educating Utah's consumers and licensed professionals to red flags within Utah's real estate market.   For more information or to request assistance please visit us online at:  http://www.PerfectHomeLiving.com