IV 
110TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. CON. RES. 127 
Supporting home ownership and responsible lending. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
APRIL 24, 2007 
Mr. CUMMINGS submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was 
referred to the Committee on Financial Services 
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 
Supporting home ownership and responsible lending. 
Whereas home ownership is an essential part of realizing the 
American Dream; 
Whereas home ownership is a powerful economic stimulus, 
both for individual homeowners and for the national 
economy; 
Whereas home ownership also benefits neighborhoods by rais-
ing property values and by providing economic and social 
capital in previously distressed communities; 
Whereas in 2006, more than 75,000,000 Americans owned 
homes, and the home ownership rate was nearly 69 per-
cent, a near record high; 
Whereas the home ownership rate for non-Hispanic whites in 
2006 was 76 percent, while the rate for African Amer-
ican households was only 48.2 percent; Hispanic house-
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holds were at 49.5 percent, and Asian, Native Americans, 
and Pacific Islanders were at 60 percent; 
Whereas this Nation experienced a housing boom from 2001 
to 2006, due to historically low mortgage rates, rising 
home prices, and increased liquidity in the secondary 
mortgage market, all factors that led to the growth of the 
sub-prime mortgage industry; 
Whereas the sub-prime market has created opportunities for 
‘‘predatory’’ lending in which unscrupulous lenders have 
hidden the true cost of sub-prime loans from unsophisti-
cated borrowers; 
Whereas during the past few months, it has become increas-
ingly clear that irresponsible sub-prime lending practices 
are contributing to a wave of foreclosures that are harm-
ing homeowners and rattling the housing markets; 
Whereas an estimated 1 in 5 sub-prime loans issued in 2005 
and 2006 will go into default, costing 2,200,000 home 
owners their homes over the next several years; 
Whereas sub-prime mortgage loans are most prevalent in 
lower-income neighborhoods with high concentrations of 
minorities (in 2005, 53 percent of African American and 
37.8 percent of Hispanic borrowers took out sub-prime 
loans), and more minorities are being steered into the 
higher-rate, sub-prime loan market than are white bor-
rowers with the same qualifications; 
Whereas foreclosures are also costly from a legal and admin-
istrative standpoint, with the average foreclosure costing 
the borrower $7,200 in administrative charges; 
Whereas lenders do not typically benefit from taking over a 
delinquent owner’s property, losing as much as $50,000 
per foreclosure; 
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Whereas foreclosures can also be very costly for local govern-
ments because abandoned homes cost districts tax rev-
enue; 
Whereas a recent study calculated that a single-family home 
foreclosure lowers the value of homes located within one- 
eighth of a mile (or one city block) by an average of 0.9 
percent and even more so (1.4 percent) in low to mod-
erate-income communities; and 
Whereas the time has come to raise awareness about the dan-
gers of sub-prime loans and to protect homeowners from 
unscrupulous lending practices: Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate 
concurring), That— 
(1) it is the sense of the Congress that legisla-
tion should be enacted that protects buyers who have 
been victims of unscrupulous mortgage brokers and 
lenders; and 
(2) specifically, such legislation should— 
(A) include an anti-predatory lending pro-
vision that bans unfair and deceptive practices; 
(B) require lenders to evaluate a bor-
rower’s ability to pay over the life of the loan 
(at the fully indexed rate for the fully amortized 
amount); 
(C) establish Federal regulations regarding 
licensing, education, and experience require-
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ments for mortgage brokers and loan officers in 
non-bank companies; 
(D) require that disclosures be written in 
plain language and prominently displayed in a 
manner that is visually clear and effectively 
communicates the intended information to the 
potential borrower; 
(E) reduce or eliminate prepayment pen-
alties; 
(F) notify potential home buyers of lenders 
or brokers with high foreclosure rates; and 
(G) mandate pre-loan counseling. 
Æ 
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