If a borrower was delinquent in making timely mortgage payments, the lender would in most
cases take possession of the property in a process called foreclosure. Mortgage delinquencies
can be traced back to 2004 when interest rates started to rise. In 2004 the US Federal Reserve
started a cycle of interest rate rises that would lift borrowing costs from 1%, their lowest
since the 1950s. In fact it went on to increase interest rates 17 times in a row as it tried to
slow inflation. It paused in June 2006, setting the cost of borrowing costs at 5.25%. These
increases pushed many ARMs beyond the means of borrowers. It tipped borrowers over the
edge, making repayments unaffordable and contributed to the mortgage crisis. By the fourth
quarter of 2007, the rate of serious delinquency as measured by credit records stood at 2% of all
mortgage borrowers, up nearly 50% from the end of 2004.9 To understand the financial scale
of the problem, by November 2007 the value of US subprime mortgage payments outstanding
was estimated at $1.4 trillion.10 By October 2007, approximately 16% of subprime ARMs
were delinquent (Bernanke 2007). By January 2008, the delinquency rate had risen to 21%
and by May 2008 it was 25% (Bernanke 2008a, 2008b).