Pa. House passes 5 mortgage measures
HARRISBURG - The state House took steps yesterday to ease the financial crunch that has left thousands of families scrambling to avoid losing their homes.
HARRISBURG - The state House took steps yesterday to ease the financial crunch that has left thousands of families scrambling to avoid losing their homes.
Five bills that address how mortgages are sold were approved. The legislation would tighten oversight of real estate appraisers, let banking regulators disclose discipline taken against mortgage brokers and bankers more quickly, and make information about delinquent loans more readily available.
It also would ban prepayment penalties for loans of $197,000 or less, an amount that would be adjusted for inflation in the future, and create a single type of license for all mortgage originators.
"Over the past year, witness after witness after witness has come to the Commerce Committee and told members of the committee about being misinformed or even blatantly misled," said Rep. Peter J. Daley (D., Washington), the committee's chairman.
The only bill that encountered opposition concerned real estate appraisers. It would establish new grounds for denying certification to an appraiser and increase the maximum per-violation civil penalty for those who violate state standards from $1,000 to $10,000.
Rep. Richard Stevenson (R., Mercer), a certified real estate appraiser, said designating a seat on the state board for a banker would run counter to long-standing practice.
Despite the objections, the bill passed, 126-77.
A similar package of mortgage-related bills advanced out of the Senate without opposition last month, and Banking Department spokeswoman Heather Tyler described the two approaches as substantially similar.
"We believe that it shouldn't be that hard to reconcile them," she said.
Pennsylvania's foreclosures in February rose 43 percent from January and 22 percent from a year earlier, Tyler said.
