S. Florida heavy on subprime loans

Up to half of place loans and refinancings in Broward and Palm Beach counties last twelvemonth were made at above-market interest rates, and minority borrowers were far more than likely to have got such as high-cost loans, a survey issued Wednesday said. The study, by the acorn grouping of lodging advocates, covered 172 communities and said Palm Beach County ranked 17th and Broward County 35th among countries with the most high-cost loans. acorn said communities near the top of the listing ran the top hazard of foreclosures when adjustable-rate mortgages reset.

"In 2006, adjustable-rate loans made up 80 percentage of all subprime loans, a immense addition from 1999," said the study, titled "Foreclosure Exposure." "These loans autumn disproportionately on minority borrowers," it said. Included in the study was an analysis of subprime loans made to Latino householders that said 68.8 percentage of place loans made in Palm Beach County last twelvemonth to Hispanics were above market. No other community had a greater per centum of such as loans made to Hispanics. Lubbock, Texas, was 2nd on the list. Attempts to attain local acorn functionaries for remark were unsuccessful. The survey defined high-cost loans, also known as subprime loans, as those where involvement rates are 3 per centum points or more than above the rates prevailing on U.S. Treasury securities of comparable length. Although the 74.5 percentage of place loans made at subprime rates to achromatic householders in Palm Beach County was even higher than the figure for Hispanics, nationally it ranked seventh. In the Motor City area, 87 percentage of place loans made last twelvemonth to blacknesses were subprime, the survey said. A separate reappraisal of mortgage refinancings done last twelvemonth establish that Palm Beach County ranked 21st and Broward County 50th for the proportionality of high-cost refinancings. About 49 percentage of refinancings in Palm Beach County and 42 percentage of those in Broward last twelvemonth were at subprime rates, the survey said. ACORN, an acronym for Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, sampled federally available loaning information from 363 mortgage companies owned by 19 of the biggest loaners in the state for its study. It said the loaners were responsible for more than than two-thirds of place loans issued last year.Tom Stieghorst can be reached at or 305-810-5008.