Realty Times - "Alarmed By Rising Defaults, NAR Educates Consumers About Exotic and Subprime Loans" (12-20-06)

"According to RealtyTrac.com, its November 2006 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report showed that 120,334 properties nationwide entered some stage of foreclosure during the month. That's an increase of 4 percent from the previous month and an increase of 68 percent from November 2005."

"The report also showed a national foreclosure rate of one new foreclosure filing for every 961 U.S. households, the highest monthly foreclosure rate reported so far this year."

"Worse, the Mortgage Bankers Association delinquency survey released in November showed that more homeowners are falling behind in their monthly payments, particularly those with "subprime credit histories and scores when they applied for their loans," writes Ken Harney for Realty Times. 'Roughly one of every 20 homeowners with a mortgage -- 4.7 percent -- was at least 30 days late during the third quarter, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association's national delinquency survey released last week. The survey examined payment performances on over 42.6 million active home mortgages.' That means that 'one of every eight borrowers with subprime credit histories was late during the same quarter. Subprime borrowers who took out adjustable rate mortgages were even more likely to be behind -- one in every seven were delinquent last quarter.'"