Troubles in mortgageland may get worse before they get better, especially for subprime borrowers, whose spotty credit histories put them into more costly loans.

“It’s an amorphous blob of trouble,” says Keith Gumbinger of HSH Associates, a mortgage research firm. “And there’s more pain to come.”
continue reading "Mortgage problems? The longer you hide, the worse they’ll get"

Cheap money harder to find for buyers who remain eager

By Gretchen Morgenson and Vikas Bajaj
New York Times News Service
Published July 13, 2007

The unusually low interest rates of the last three years have been an enormous boon to almost every corner of the U.S. economy.

They have provided consumers with dirt-cheap mortgages that fed the real estate boom. They have supplied easy credit to companies and investment firms, propelling stocks and corporate profits to record highs and fueling a buyout binge.

Now that party may be coming to an end.
continue reading "Higher mortgage rates hit sales"