Oklahoma homeowners struggling with payments, foreclosures

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- More Oklahomans are falling behind on their house payments and the number who've lost their homes to foreclosure has more than tripled in the past four years.<br/><br/>A study

Wednesday, April 5th 2006, 11:14 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- More Oklahomans are falling behind on their house payments and the number who've lost their homes to foreclosure has more than tripled in the past four years.

A study by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation says the mortgage foreclosure rate in the state was just more than 2.5 percent for the last three months of 2005.

That's the second-highest foreclosure rate in the past ten years.

And 2.15 percent of home payments were past due during the same three months.

Alan Bush with the FDIC's insurance and research division says the number of late payments and foreclosures may indicate some Oklahomans haven't recovered from the recession during 2000 and 2001.

Financial analysts also say rising interest rates are driving up payments for those with adjustable-rate mortgages and credit cards and that rising energy costs are also hurting those who live paycheck to paycheck.