New Hampshire housing advocates say they’ve noticed a troubling trend — the mortgage crisis is spreading to prime borrowers.
Most of the foreclosures in New Hampshire stem from subprime mortgages made to borrowers who don’t qualify for traditional loans, usually because of bad credit or low income.
But the director of one counseling agency says he’s seen an alarming increase in calls from homeowners seeking help not because of adjustable-rate subprime loans, but because loss of income is making it difficult to keep up with their payments.
A recent report by the New Hampshire Housing Finance Authority backs that up. As of the fourth quarter of last year, there were more than 18,000 delinquent mortgage loans in the state. Of those, about 11,000 were prime loans and 6,000 were subprime loans.