Failing Mortgages and the Domino Effect
By Brian P. McLean, Leahy.ps
The Puget Sound Business Journal discusses the continuing deterioration of the mortgage market:
Subprime mortgages, which were issued to people with checkered payment histories, have the highest level of delinquency, but the delinquency rate among prime borrowers is growing fastest. From March 31, 2008 to Dec. 31, 2008, the percentage of prime borrowers who were at least 90 days late on their mortgages more than doubled, to 2.4 percent.
There are now more than 550,000 prime mortgages more than 90 days overdue, and for the first time, that number surpassed the subprime tally. The subprime loans are failing at much higher rates, however — more than 16 percent are seriously delinquent.
Puget Sound Business Journal, April 3, 2009.
Mortgage failures typically follow defaulting payments on homeowner assessments. The continuing decay of housing prices, personal income, and wealth (real and imagined) , is straining association budgets and the finances (and largesse) of the remaining owners who budgeted for themselves but not to pay their neighbors’ debt, too.
