More fall behind on mortgages

[NVMojo]

September 14, 2006

More homeowners with shaky credit are falling behind on their mortgage payments, especially in such states as Ohio, Alabama, Tennessee, Michigan and West Virginia, where job losses have struck the local economies, the Mortgage Bankers Association said Wednesday.

The problem is the worst for those with subprime credit who pay higher-than-usual interest rates and who have adjustable loans that have been resetting to higher rates. About 12.2% of such borrowers were late paying their loans in April through June, the highest level since the end of 2003.

About 25% of all mortgages carry adjustable rates, and more than half of those loans are to subprime borrowers. As a result, delinquencies are expected to rise through next year as more adjustable-rate mortgages reset to higher rates, sending ripples through family finances and housing markets.

Calls to the Homeownership Preservation Foundation, which provides free credit counseling, hit a record 2,464 in August, a 25% jump over July. More than half of the distressed callers had ARM loans.

more...

http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/housing/2006-09-14-delinquency-usat_x.htm?POE=click-refer

[lapfog_1]

1. Welcome to the Shrub's idea of an "ownership society"

the extreme right passed the bankruptcy reform measures at the behest of the banking institutions...
and when these people default, the banks will pick up the properties of the middle class, ruin them
so that they are now in the poor class for the rest of their days (and likely their children as well),
keep the down payments and write off the bad loan... while they re-market the house to another set of
middle class americans that just want to live "the american dream" (the one * was so proud of in the
2004 campaign).

All the while shifting a debt and tax burden to the lower and middle classes at breathtaking rates.

It's out and out class warfare of the most insidious variety.

BTW, it's very expensive to be poor in America... everything you want to do costs more than if you were
well off with a decent credit rating. It's engineered to keep the poor and nearly poor in that category.

[virgdem]

2. What Shrub really means by "ownership society" is...

You're on your own, bud, and we don't give a damn about you.

[Art_from_Ark]

3. It's either that, or

"We OWN you!"

[Giant Robot]

4. "You now have an owner"

"Please report this afternoon for yardwork at his estate."

[suziedemocrat]

5. Rate of Delinquency by State in Descending Order

Percentage of subprime ARM loans that were 30 days or more past due in 2nd quarter 2006. Excludes loans already in foreclosure.

Mississippi
26.80%

Louisiana
25.80%

West Virginia
20.80%

Alabama
19.50%

Michigan
19.10%

Tennessee
17.90%

Missouri
17.80%

Nebraska
16.50%

Indiana
16.10%

Ohio
15.90%

Texas
15.90%

Arkansas
15.70%

Iowa
15.70%

Pennsylvania
15.60%

Kentucky
15.50%

New Hampshire
15.30%

Georgia
15.20%

Oklahoma
15.10%

North Carolina
14.80%

Kansas
14.70%

Massachusetts
14.40%

South Carolina
14.40%

Maine
14.20%

Wisconsin
13.80%

Rhode Island
13.50%

South Dakota
13.50%

Illinois
12.90%

Connecticut
12.60%

Delaware
12.40%

Minnesota
12.40%

New York
12.00%

New Mexico
11.90%

New Jersey
11.60%

Vermont
11.40%

Alaska
11.10%

North Dakota
10.70%

Montana
10.60%

Virginia
10.20%

Florida
10.10%

Colorado
9.80%

Maryland
9.70%

Wyoming
9.60%

Idaho
9.10%

District of Columbia
8.80%

Washington
8.50%

Utah
8.40%

California
8.20%

Hawaii
7.50%

Oregon
7.50%

Nevada
7.00%

Arizona
6.10%

[Warpy]

7. New Mexicans are savvier than I thought

Only 11.9% of them fell for those low ARM teaser rates.

I'm not a bit surprised that the big time GOP states in the south pushed those ARMs the hardest and that their people fell for them.

I'm a little surprised about the 8.2% California rate. Prices have been so nutty in that state that I'd think a larger percentage of people had to take ARMs to qualify. Maybe that's only been true for the last few years, with earlier borrowers having fixed rate mortgages.

[fasttense]

6. Just like right before the Great Depression.

The "free market" republicans caused the first Great Depression, I wonder what they have in store for us this time?

[NVMojo]

8. true story