Bush to visit Ark. to talk housing, raise GOP cash

Bush will make his first visit to Arkansas since October to convene the housing round-table discussion and help raise cash for the state Republican Party. Bush won the state in both the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections.

The first stop on Bush's schedule is a round-table discussion with clients of a housing counseling program offered by the Family Service Agency in North Little Rock. Henry Cameron, a housing credit counselor, said the number of clients it helps who have defaulted on their home loans has nearly doubled--from an average of five a month a year ago to 12 a month this year.

Cameron blamed increases in fuel and food prices primarily for putting a squeeze on the budgets of his clients.

"That puts a crunch on anyone's budget," Cameron said. "They have to make a choice between buying food, putting more gas in the tank or making a mortgage payment."

RealtyTrac Inc., a California company that tracks foreclosures, said the number of Arkansas homes in some stage of foreclosure jumped 26.44 percent last year from 11,318 filed in 2006 to 14,310 filed in 2007. Arkansas ranked 26th nationwide in its foreclosure rate, the company said.

A foreclosure rescue plan with broad bipartisan support stalled in the Senate last week in a dispute over taxes. Democrats and many Republicans were pushing for quick approval of the bill, which would allow the government to back $300 billion in new, cheaper mortgages for debt-ridden homeowners facing foreclosure.

Lawmakers have been negotiating behind the scenes with the Bush administration to avert a veto.

Laney Briggs, president of the Arkansas Mortgage Bankers Association, said the state has not seen the same impact from the collapse of the subprime mortgage market as other states have.

"We're paying for the sins of these other markets," Briggs said. "There's not a heavy amount of subprime in Arkansas, but now there's none because of the subprime collapse."