Press coverage on victims of subprime mortgages

Here is some coverage from US local media on the experiences of ordinary people taking out mortgages and the problems they are getting into potentially leading to foreclosures. This is driving the issue of subprime mortgages and the current problem facing all the major banks - how much provisions should they make for these. There is a particular category of sub-sub prime mortgages which some analysts are saying may have to be provisioned nearly up to 100%.

From Battle Creek, Michigan in the heart of the American industrial belt.

Finally a sobering perspective of the scale of the problem from the Sun Times Chicago Group with a US wide perspective on US repossessions. Potentially over a millon homes are likely to be involved in repossession orders over the coming 12 months up 100% from last year. Florida, California and Nevada have the highest rates.

Stories like these highlight how regional and local stories on this issue providing information from the front line will have an impact on financial markets as they are picked up by analysts and investors. Equally the Florida, California and Nevada housing markets will be closely watched over the next 12 months to see the point where better news (hopefully) starts to permeate through to financial markets and where reposessions start to head down.