Even newest subdivisions confront mortgage crisis

The growing mortgage crisis is spreading from the city to the suburbs - even to shiny new subdivisions like Regency Park. Tim Armstrong, 39, has watched more than one neighbor move out in the middle of the night. One even left his car behind for the repo man. “Let me tell you about foreclosures,” he says. “My neighbor was in foreclosure. There’s one across the street and more around the corner.

It’s a real problem out here.” Armstrong, a forklift mechanic with three children, is anxious about his own situation, too. More than two years ago, he refinanced his house with an adjustable-rate mortgage. The rate began to climb after 24 months, and in the spring his payments jumped $400 a month to $2,100. “I kind of brought it on myself - I didn’t read the fine print,” he says. He’s trying to refinance, but he’s worried that neighborhood property values have fallen.

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