| Personal bankruptcies jump 96% in Metro Orlando
Amid the growing mortgage-debt crisis, personal bankruptcies nearly doubled in Metro Orlando last year, although they remained far lower than the record levels earlier this decade, according to court figures released this week.
Nearly 7,060 debtors declared insolvency in Orlando's federal bankruptcy court in 2007, up 96 percent from 2006, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Middle District of Florida reported.
Fueled by the mortgage crisis, personal bankruptcy is reaching all levels of the income spectrum -- from affluent professionals to lower-income subprime borrowers, bankruptcy lawyers said.
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Defaults moving beyond sub-prime
Thought the mortgage meltdown was just a sub-prime affair? Think again. There's another time bomb waiting to explode, experts say: risky loans made to people with good credit.
So-called pay-option adjustable-rate mortgages, or option ARMs, were the easiest and most profitable home loans for lenders and brokers to make for much of this decade. Last year, they accounted for about 9% of the volume of all mortgages made in the U.S. and were especially popular in California, Florida and Nevada -- states where home prices rose the most during the housing boom and are now falling most sharply.
An option ARM loan gives a borrower the option of paying less than the interest due, causing the loan balance to rise. If it rises too much -- say, by 10% or 15% -- the opportunity to make a low payment vanishes and the required payment skyrockets.
RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENT: Rhodes floats land plan Homebuilder sets ...
KINGMAN, Ariz. -- It's apparently going to take more than a sluggish economy, a mortgage loan crisis and a housing market that's been put to sleep to keep Southern Nevada homebuilder Jim Rhodes off the radar in northwest Arizona. Some 300 people crowded into a Kingman middle school cafeteria on Thursday for the unveiling of the master-planned community Rhodes wants to develop on 5,000 acres in nearby Golden Valley, about 110 miles south of Las Vegas. Eight hundred people hold reservations for lots in Pravada, which could total as many as 25,000 homes at full build-out, roughly four times as many as Rhodes has built over the years in Las Vegas. Rhodes Homes Arizona Vice President Chris Stephens expressed confidence that about 2,000 homes will be built there within five years.
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