Salt Lake City, UT / February 3, 2006 / Press Release -- According to the Center for Responsible Lending the leading resource for predatory lending opponents, borrowers lose more than $25 billion annually due to predatory mortgages and other lending abuses.   

As in the story entitled “Taming the Predators” written January 29, 2006, by Michelle Singletary, Personal Finance Columnist for The Washington Post  “…it is hard to get sympathy or needed federal legislation enacted for low-income borrowers or people with poor credit.”

Within the U.S. the vicious cycle of predatory lending practices by lenders is changing landscape.  The evolution of predatory lending has transformed from mainstream lenders regulated by the FDIC and OTS to acts of predatory lending being perpetrated by small local and national real estate investment groups and clubs. 

Today’s investment groups lure aging baby boomers with good credit or liquid retirement capital to pool financial resources to purchase real estate or act as the financial funding arm for real estate purchases and developments.  By collectively amassing an individual’s wealth, investment groups can easily finance the purchase of multiple homes in neighborhoods, thereby controlling market value and creating false appreciation values.  

But how well are these real estate investment groups and enterprises that have $2 million and up in liquid cash hidden? 

The National Intelligence Director John Negroponte said this past Thursday that al-Qaida terror network remains the "top concern" of the U.S. intelligence community, followed closely by the nuclear activities of Iran and North Korea.

Negroponte’s comments are significant considering his job was created by Congress to coordinate the work of the government’s 15 intelligence agencies.  

While America shifts to address risk of attacks from overseas threats, domestically unchecked predatory lending practices more specifically; mortgage fraud - by investor groups and enterprises leave financial and housing markets vulnerable.

Vulnerabilities that make Fannie Mae and its junior Freddie Mac susceptible to guaranteeing repayment of billions of dollars on home loans that carry fraud with them. 

“Policy to address predatory lending practices is working but use of technology enables criminals and their enterprises to morph into new arenas and levels of fraud in seconds as oppose to years,” said Sheri Fitzpatrick, REALTOR and CEO of Perfect Home Living. 

“What we are seeing now is not originating at the mainstream lender levels, but starting with small individual groups with lender type financial resources.  These groups are knowledgeable and highly efficient in passing their fraud off to mainstream lenders,” Fitzpatrick added.

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