For The Love Of Money

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LI experts applaud Obama plan to help with foreclosures [Newsday, Melville, N.Y.] Knight Ridder/Tribune    "Business News "
Feb. 19 --Long Island housing experts breathed a sigh of relief yesterday after President Barack Obama announced a series of steps to help homeowners facing foreclosure and ease mortgage payments for thousands of others. But some were skeptical, saying they would wait for results.

Marianne Garvin, president of the Community Development Corp. of Long Island, a nonprofit housing advocacy organization, said that "thousands" of troubled homeowners have come to CDC in the last year, compared with about 50 in more normal times.

"Hallelujah," she said. "Somebody is finally trying to address the real problem and come up with some real solutions."

Peter Elkowitz, president of the Long Island Housing Partnership , said he had not yet heard all of the details but that he thought it was important to get something started soon. "Anything to stimulate the economy and keep people in their houses is critical," he said.

Obama pledged billions to a program that will cut mortgage payments for as many as 9 million struggling homeowners and expand the role of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in curbing a record number of foreclosures across the country.

But Mary Petrella, operations manager at Choice Home Mortgage Services in Patchogue, who has been in the real estate business since the mid-1980s, said she would take a wait-and-see attitude.

"I have a lot of confidence in this president," Petrella said. "But I'm skeptical as to whether it's going to work and affect the people who need it." Some of those people, Petrella said, are seniors in danger of losing their homes. "I'm shocked at how much we are pulling teeth at these banks to help these people," she said.

Joseph E. Mottola, chief executive of Long Island Board of Realtors, said he did not hear the announcement but remarked, "This has got to be a positive in the marketplace. I think there's an attempt here to provide some relief to a broad range of problems."

Bethany Marten, owner of Home Buyers Resource Center in Baldwin, said she thought Obama's plan "is probably more than one would have ever expected." And while she liked most of the plan, Marten said, she believed it was "unfair" that people who have been current on their mortgages would have a harder time refinancing than those who had fallen behind in payments.

The White House said that homeowners current on their mortgages who have been unable to refinance to lower their interest rates because their homes have decreased in value "may now have the opportunity to refinance." There seems to be no "may" for those who are not current on their mortgages, she said.

Long Islanders react to President Barack Obama's announcement yesterday on a $75-billion plan to stave the flow of foreclosures

PATRICK MOTYKA JR.

28, of Brentwood

"I think the problem is a lot larger," he said. "You're going to have to fix a lot of other things. The system itself doesn't work anymore."

SHELDON ISKOWITZ

58, of Flushing

"I believe that loans that were given under suspicious circumstances should be refinanced and the lenders penalized," he said. "On the other hand, it's a reward to people who have been irresponsible in their spending. It's penalizing the people who have been making sacrifices to pay their mortgage."

CANDICE BETHEA

27, of Wyandanch

"I think it will work, but it's going to take everyone to get back to normal," she said of the plan. President Barack Obama "can't do it by himself. We're going to have to cut some things and spend some money to fix other things."

MICHAEL JONES,

40, of Wheatley Heights

"I think many of the people are in trouble because they don't have jobs," he said. "People have to make money to pay their bills. If we don't get them jobs and get money flowing, there's no helping the mortgage industry."

CECILIA PORTILLO

27, of Wheatley Heights

"I think it's going to work," she said of the plan. "Those people will have more money to spend [when their loans are refinanced] and the economy is going to improve."

- Susana Enriquez

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