Transcript of governor's news conference in Fresno

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Transcript of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger Announcing Work with Lenders to Help Homeowners Avoid Foreclosure

GOVERNOR SCHWARZENEGGER:

First of all, I want to say thank you very much to our Assembly Republican Leader, Mike Villines, for being here today. Where is Mike? Right here. And then Mayor Alan Autry, a very good friend. And I want to thank also Preston DuFauchard, who was our great negotiator, and he's with the California Department of Corporations. And then Mike Krimminger -- instead of Krimminer, Krimminger -- from the FDIC, I want to thank you also for being here, and everyone else that is here today.

I have, as you know, come many times here to the Central Valley, to the San Joaquin Valley. I am here today to talk to the members of our Partnership of the San Joaquin Valley and also to the leaders of the Central Valley, to talk about a very serious issue that is hurting California families and is hurting our California economy. The growing foreclosure crisis in this country, and in particular here in California, is an issue that we all need to address. According to a survey just last week, 7 of the 16 metropolitan areas with the highest foreclosure rates in the nation are right here in California, and I'm talking about cities like Oakland, San Diego, Sacramento, Bakersfield, Riverside, San Bernardino, Stockton, and of course also Fresno.

And that same survey says that California had 51,259 foreclosure filings in September, this last month, which is the most of any state in the nation. And by the way, there are another half a million Californians that have sub-prime loans that will jump to higher rates and that will happen within the next two years. So, sad to say, many of them probably won't be able to make those higher mortgage payments and will lose their homes, will go into foreclosure, which is devastating to families. It hurts our neighborhoods and it depresses our economy. This is also part of the reason why our state revenues have decreased over the last few months.

And behind each statistic, of course, are families who believed that they had achieved the American Dream. Think about this for a minute. Two days from now we are celebrating Thanksgiving. It's a time when we all gather in our homes and we are hanging there with our friends and with family, and we share a meal and we give thanks, and we build memories that last a lifetime. But there are many families out there that will not be able to celebrate because of the situation today and because of this major problem.

So to lose your home, as probably everyone knows, to a foreclosure, is an emotional crash and it sometimes takes years to recuperate from. But we don't have to sit idly by to watch the American Dream become the American Nightmare. We are lobbying Congress to raise the current limits for government-backed loans so that more Californians can qualify for traditional lower-risk mortgages. We have also had conversations with our legislative leaders, and we all have committed that we will do everything possible to make sure that we protect the consumer. And because of the cooperation that we have gotten from the loan services that are, some of them, with us here today -- and we want to thank them for their great cooperation and for their willingness to work with us -- we can save tens of thousands of people from being added to that foreclosure list. This approach does not involve government subsidies nor government bailouts. It involves common sense, pragmatism, and doing the right thing.