More are struggling to pay the mortgage

The Boston Globe reports:

Foreclosure filings against Massachusetts homeowners increased 30 percent in the first three months of 2006 and have doubled in the past three years, as homeowners in one of the nation's most expensive real estate markets struggle to cope with high prices and rising interest rates.

Economists and housing specialists said record numbers of mortgages have been written in recent years, as banks and finance companies devised new loans with little or no down payments or with low interest rates in the early years to help buyers afford homes. But rising interest rates and a softening real estate market have put a squeeze on homeowners who sometimes can't make the higher payments on adjustable-rate mortgages or refinance their loans to lower their payments.

''These are numbers everybody should be paying attention to," said Thomas Callahan, executive director of the Massachusetts Affordable Housing Alliance, which helps working people buy homes. ''There are things that could happen like further increases in interest rates and or more serious decreases in [house] values that can make this a lot worse than it is now, and it's pretty bad right now."

A homeowner without equity is a renter with huge debt.A place like Massachusetts has even bigger problems because they've been losing population.