IN FORECLOSURE, LENDER SHOULD GO ON RECORD.

Byline: GREGORY J. WILCOX

Support is growing for the notion that something more intense than political posturing is needed to illuminate the black hole devouring the residential real estate market.

Don't be surprised if voices from different groups start calling on law enforcement agencies for a forensic examination of the forces that have sent record numbers of homes spiraling into foreclosure.

One of those voices will be that of Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alarcn, who received lots of attention last week after calling for spending taxpayer money to deal with the crisis.

"It seems to me we'd better kick the federal government in the butt to get into action to help us solve the problem, and I don't think we're doing any kicking now," he said during a City Council hearing.

In an interview Friday, Alarcn agreed that more needs to be done than loaning money to homeowners so they can catch up with their payments.

A problem that grew so big, so fast suggests nefarious roots.

"There needs to be aggressive targeting and prosecution of criminal originators by the FBI, state and local authorities," he said. "The fraud issue needs to be looked at from a lot of angles. The cases that are the most egregious are where people just didn't know what they were signing."

(The councilman's financial-aid suggestion did not get a warm reception. The Daily News asked readers if local government should 69 responses logged seemed to favor the idea.)

Here's another suggestion.

Every time a home is foreclosed on, why not require the lender to make the original, and subsequent, mortgage applications part o And then have someone from a regulatory agency, like the federal Office of Thrift Supervision, examine the documents to make sure the close of escrow.

This agency also entered the fray last week, too, at the behest of the nonprofit Neighborhood Assistance Corp. of America. It ask having trouble making payments. The organization

(www.naca.com) has established the Home Save Program to provide assistance for homeowners with unaffordable loans who are at risk During an event in Washington, D.C., a panel of borrowers discussed the financial trouble they are in with their mortgages.

On Thursday, Bill Ruberry, an Office of Thrift Supervision spokesman, told the Web site MarketWatch that the OTS will deal with s day.

"We are going to look into each one of the cases and talk to the institution to determine how their problems can be worked out,' t how the office would resolve the issue with Countrywide.

The agency did not return calls seeking comment Friday.

Bruce Marks, chief executive at the NACA, agrees it might be time to start reviewing records, too. "I think everything should be looked at. You've got to put the responsibility where it should be."

And he's pretty sure he knows where that is: the lenders and investors who were buying up mortgages during the big boom earlier t "They said: 'Give me anything. I don't care whether it's accurate or not. I don't care. I've got buyers for these things."'

In other words, this sector of Wall Street that is getting pounded now had a market a few years ago and not enough product to fee Part of that appetite was satiated by the subprime market. To buy a home, borrowers -- some with spotty credit -- took out adjust ve been qualified to make the payments then but not when rates are resetting, as they are now. And with the way those were put toget out a payment plan.

"The point is, where does the major responsibility go when you have an orchestrated scheme t o get a huge amount of money from working people with mortgages structured to fail?" he asked. "You don't give equal weight to all ty of the responsibility goes."

Marks has already made his decision.

Don't blame the victims.

But when this mess is sorted out, there will be lots of blame to go around.

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