New York Mortgage Bank Says Bush Plan Misses The Mark And Leaves Thousands of Borrowers...

New York Mortgage Bank Says Bush Plan Misses The Mark And Leaves Thousands of Borrowers Still At Risk And Looking To Lenders For Solution

MELVILLE, N.Y.--(Business Wire)--Thousands of mortgage borrowers have been overlooked by President
Bush's sub-prime mortgage relief plan, announced today, and will lose
their homes as a result - according to Gregg Marcus, Managing Director
of Somerset Mortgage Bankers, one of Long Island's oldest and fastest
growing lenders. He says the plan is simply "a drop in the bucket."

Marcus believes that the Bush solution, which will freeze interest
rates for five years to certain types of loans made at the start of
2005 through July 30th of this year with rates that are scheduled to
raise between January 1, 2008 and July 31, 2010, does nothing for
borrowers who have "refinanced" over the past two years and especially
for those who never factored in their new payment.

"They are making it real difficult for those people who took out
loans on their homes they have owned for many years. Those people are
clearly in the same situation as the borrowers the initiative is
addressing, and these people have vested in their property, but this
plan doesn't address this. I think President Bush should have included
the refinance borrowers if only to rescue the nation from going
further into a housing recession," says Marcus.

He adds that the Bush plan should include all borrowers who
refinanced their rates during the housing boom, not just those who
bought new properties in the past two years. "What about the people
who bought their home before 2005 but refinanced in the past two
years? Why are they not eligible for the Bush plan? They are not
speculators, they still live in the same house. This makes no sense,"
says Marcus.

"At least 30 per cent of mortgage borrowers in Long Island have
subprime loans and over 60 per cent of those loans were refinanced.
This plan needs to address those borrowers. It should apply to
everybody who has been performing well on their current loan without
going delinquent, not just to new buyers," says Marcus.

Somerset Mortgage Bankers has been operating in Melville, Long
Island, since 1979 and lends in 28 states, although primarily in New
York's Tri-State area. Despite the current sub-prime crisis, Somerset
has seen its income increase ten-fold over the past four years.
Somerset is one of only a handful of lenders able to offer FHA Reverse
Mortgages as well as a diverse array of products aimed at helping its
borrowers keep their homes.

Over the past year, Somerset has stepped in and saved homes and
small businesses for numerous customers and believes there are still
thousands of homeowners at risk who need to talk to their lenders and
find a viable solution to foreclosure.

Media Information:
Oui 2 PR
Rob Goldstone or David Wilson
212-541-5698

Copyright Business Wire 2007