A growing number of homeowners are falling behind on their monthly payments for home equity lines of credit, yet another complication for banks and consumers from the weak housing market and slowing economy.
Wisconsin banks wrote off as bad debt almost $16.4 million in home equity lines of credit last year, up 73% from 2006, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
At the end of 2007, about $13 million in home equity lines of credit was 90 days or more overdue, almost triple the total reported by state banks at the same time a year earlier.
