The first session will be held today at BankNewport in Middletown.

01:00 AM EDT on Wednesday, August 24, 2005

BY AMANDA MILKOVITS
Journal Staff Writer

There's money to be made in today's hot real-estate market.

And the vultures know it.

Alarmed by a rise in predatory lending practices, a special legislative commission is holding hearings across the state through the rest of the year to determine ways to curb such actions.

Representatives from the Center for Responsible Lending, the Rhode Island Mortgage Brokers Association, and the Department of Business Regulation will speak today at a hearing from 5 to 7 p.m. at BankNewport, 12 Turner Rd., in Middletown. Community residents are also invited to speak.

The stories are abundant, from flim-flam schemes of falsifying loan papers to giving loans to unqualified buyers, to fudging information on loan repayment, and "foreclosure specialists" who talk homeowners into signing over their properties for a pittance.

All the practices are geared to one outcome -- turning over the homes, the equity, and the money, to the predators.

Sen. Juan Pichardo, D-Providence, who chairs the commission to study predatory mortgage lending practices, said that throughout the years there have been more problems with predatory lenders -- particularly targeting the elderly and minority residents.

Rhode Island leads the nation in subprime lending -- those loans given at less than the best rates to customers with bad credit or no credit. Subprime lenders have a place, but some have engaged in unscrupulous tactics.

The purpose of the commission is to determine the state of predatory lending in Rhode Island and make recommendations in a report to the General Assembly. What they find out may determine the legislation submitted next year.