Senators, banking officials hold foreclosure forum

Hundreds of Long Island homeowners who are on the verge of foreclosure gathered Saturday at the Operation Protect Your Home forum. State senators and the state banking department have organized a series

News 12 Staff

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Sep 29, 2008, 1:28 PM

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Updated 5,931 days ago

Hundreds of Long Island homeowners who are on the verge of foreclosure gathered Saturday at the Operation Protect Your Home forum.

State senators and the state banking department have organized a series of such meetings specifically for people who are in danger of losing their homes.

One of the participants of the forum, truck driver Vito Trotta, says when he took out a mortgage on his home in Medford, he thought it had a fixed rate. But then his monthly payments increased by $600.

?I was just catching up before we went on strike, and we went on strike?that really put the icing on the cake,? he says.

State Banking Superintendent Richard Neiman says Trotta?s situation is not uncommon in this area nowadays.

?Combining Suffolk and Nassau, over 21 percent of all the foreclosure filings in New York take place on Long Island,? he says.

Organizers of the foreclosure forum say their goal was to bring homeowners and lenders together because lenders are more willing to talk about making adjustments than they have been in the past.

?The last thing a lender wants to do is be in the real estate business,? says state Senator Kenneth Lavalle (R-Port Jefferson).

Brian Kahne, of Brentwood, was able to obtain a lower interest rate after explaining his situation to a lender.

?They lowered my interest rate to 3.9 percent for three years, lowered my mortgage," Kahne says.