Fed says 7 percent of subprime ARMs delinquent

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve Bank of New York on Friday said 12 percent of U.S. subprime adjustable-rate mortgages were delinquent by 60 days or more through August 2007.

Seven percent of these kind of loans were in foreclosure during that period.

Delinquencies and foreclosures for adjustable-rate mortgages classified as Alt-A were lower. Of the Alt-A ARMs, 3 percent were delinquent for 60 days or longer through August, while 2 percent were in foreclosure during that period.

Foreclosures across the U.S. have soared this past year.

U.S. home foreclosure filings in October edged up 2 percent from September but at 224,451 were a whopping 94 percent higher than a year earlier, real estate data firm RealtyTrac said on Thursday.

RealtyTrac said the national foreclosure rate was one filing for every 555 U.S. households in October.

A crisis in the subprime mortgage market spread to the wider credit market in August and caused bank lending to seize up, leading to a series of benchmark interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve.

(Reporting by Kevin Plumberg and Julie Haviv)