SEATTLE – Foreclosures on “subprime” mortgages are at an all-time high. It’s an epidemic fueled by those “adjustable rate mortgages” sold in the last three years.

Washington state ranked 18th in the nation for such foreclosures, jumping 25 percent last year, and it’s causing heartaches for hundreds of people.

In King County, the two zip codes with the largest number of people losing their homes in the month of April are in Kent and in Seattle’s Rainier Valley.

Sofia DeLeon says she went for an adjustable rate mortgage, but when rates were adjusted, she couldn’t keep up.

“It was scary, you know, and I felt really, really ashamed. I looked at myself as a failure,” she said. “I'm not really astute at these things, so I was just anxious to get a house… to get my own house, so I probably didn't look.”

Homeowner Nancy Wagner says the fear of foreclosure is incredibly stressful.

“You wonder what's going to happen. Are we going to be out on the street… looking for a homeless shelter or something?” she asked.

“When those loans are what's called re-cast, and their payments go up 10 to 50 percent, those folks have no hope of being able to pay them,” said Jane Withers, ACORN Housing.

An advocacy group called ACORN Housing says predatory lending three to four years ago is largely to blame.

“Neighborhoods like this one are being targeted, people with last names that sound like they might be foreign-born are being targeted, single women are being targeted, you bet,” she said.

Another danger is the so-called “foreclosure scam” where desperate homeowners deed the property over to a person who promises to make the mortgage payments, but doesn’t, and the original homeowner is foreclosed on anyway.

Number of foreclosures in King County in April 2007

Zip Code & Total filings

98042 Kent: 27

98118 Seattle: 25

98003 Federal Way: 21

98023 Auburn: 21

98031 Kent: 19

98198 Des Moines: 19

98058 Renton: 17

98001 Auburn: 15

98178 Seattle: 15

98030 Kent: 14

Source: ACORN Housing