Sunday, March 30, 2008

Subprime adjustable rate mortgages Maine style

....Caroline Wentworth is trying to save her home in Buxton. She and her husband recently filed for bankruptcy in an effort to prevent foreclosure. Her adjustable rate pushed her mortgage payment from $1,200 to $2,000 per month...The number of homeowners turning for help to agencies such as Pine Tree Legal Services is "off the charts," said Chet Randall, a staff attorney and coordinator of a foreclosure- prevention project.

Maine isn't the kind of state where a drive through a large subdivision reveals home after home up for foreclosure sale.

Instead, the foreclosure problem in Maine reflects the spread-out nature of the state -- a house here, another there, a few more a couple of miles away.

But the lack of visibility doesn't blunt the impact of the mortgage crisis that has washed over Maine, much as it has the rest of the country.

Nearly a quarter of Mainers with subprime mortgages -- the type of loans extended to people with less attractive credit histories -- are at least 60 days behind in their house payments. And nearly one in eight subprime borrowers is in foreclosure, the months-long, agonizing process of losing a home.

Mainers with good credit histories and prime loans also are falling behind on mortgages and facing foreclosure at a much higher rate than in the past

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