New wave of US mortgage trouble threatens

[NEW YORK] US borrowers are increasingly missing payments on home equity lines of credit they took out during the housing bubble, a trend that could deal another blow to the country's biggest banks.

The loans are a problem now because an increasing number are hitting their 10-year anniversary, at which point borrowers usually must start paying down the principal on the loans as well as the interest they had been paying all along.

More than US$221 billion of these loans at the largest banks will hit this mark over the next four years, about 40 per cent of the home equity lines of credit now outstanding.

For a typical consumer, that shift can translate to their monthly payment more than tripling, a particular burden for the sub-prime borrowers that often took out these loans. And payments will rise further when the F…