Subprime Mortgage Problems Are Spreading to Prime Loans

The number of Maryland borrowers who face foreclosure or have missed mortgage payments topped 100,000 for the first time at the end of last year -- a record 11.1 percent of loans in the state.

Rising joblessness is adding to the housing crisis that has sent foreclosures and delinquencies to record levels. Problems for borrowers with subprime loans are now spreading into more conventional loans. Nationally, 12 percent of borrowers were behind on their mortgage payments at the end of December.


In Maryland, the share of borrowers who missed payments rose to a high of 8.5 percent during the fourth quarter, the bankers group reported in its delinquency survey, which it has been conducting for 30 years.

Approximately 91,160 home loans, out of just over 1 million mortgages in the state, were delinquent by at least one month but were not in the process of foreclosure.

The number of loans in the foreclosure process spiked 115 percent in the state, compared with the fourth quarter of 2007. Those loans -- more than 28,000 -- represented more than 2.6 percent of loans in the state and set a record for percentage of loans in danger of foreclosure.

Information gathered from local Newspapers and Mortgage Banker's Association