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GUEST: Kathleen Keest, Senior Policy Counsel with the Center for Responsible Lending and one of the authors of the report, “Losing Ground”

For most of us, being a home owner is our best chance to achieve economic sustainability. Losing our homes, in many cases, means losing life savings. Earlier this week the Center for Responsible Lending, or CRL, released a report called “Losing Ground: Foreclosures in the Subprime Market and Their Cost to Homeowners.” According to the report, homeowners with what are called “subprime” loans, are facing very a high risk of losing their homes in the coming years with a deflating housing market. According to CRL President Mike Calhoun, “subprime lenders are selling the most dangerous loans to the most vulnerable borrowers, creating the largest rash of foreclosures in the modern mortgage market.” The report concludes that 2.2 million subprime home loans made in recent years have already failed or will end in foreclosure. That translates into one in five families who get a subprime mortgage today, losing their home to foreclosure. These foreclosures could cost as much as $164 billion – an amount that could send more than four million children through college.

For more information, visit www.responsiblelending.org.

Download the entire report, Losing Ground: http://www.responsiblelending.org/pdfs/FC-paper-12-19-new-cover-1.pdf

Download the Executive Summary of the report: http://www.responsiblelending.org/pdfs/Fclosure-exec-summary-standalone.pdf

Read CRL President Michael Calhoun’s letter to the press: http://www.responsiblelending.org/press/statements/page.jsp?itemID=31217027