Road To Ruin

Didn't think it'd happen, huh. MSNBC (05.25.06), via Eschaton:

"In the suburbs of Dallas, Bridget Edwards comes home to uncertainty every day. She and her husband, James, are four months behind on their mortgage. 'It's been just like a roller coaster,' Bridget says. 'Our payments have been just up and down.' Up and down, from $1,300 a month to more than $2,000. Foreclosures on the rise nationwide

"The reason? "'We have an adjustable-rate mortgage,' she explains. 'I really didn't know it would change like this.'" Nationwide, mortgage defaults between January and March have increased 72%. Chicago Tribune (05.28.06):

"Foreclosures on home mortgages are on the way up. In Illinois during the first three months of 2006 nearly 13,700 properties entered foreclosure, up 32 percent from the fourth quarter of 2005, according to an analysis by property tracker RealtyTrac Inc." Mortgage defaults on rise

Michigan and Ohio have seen "increases of 91 percent and 39 percent, respectively, compared with last year's fourth quarter." And this is just the beginning. "'The increases we've been seeing in foreclosures don't even reflect the worst-case scenario that could happen when the $2.7 trillion in adjustable-rate mortgages are reset over the next 18 months,' said Rick Sharga, vice president of marketing at RealtyTrac." More here and here.