Mortgage payments lower priority to some borrowers

While home foreclosure is undoubtedly a crisis for any borrower, experts are saying homeowners in states like Florida, where the foreclosure process can take as long as 18 months, often eschew home loan payments in favor of paying off other debt. Credit card debt is the biggest priority in the “payment hierarchy,” according to Scott Hoyt, the senior director of consumer economics at Moody’s, in part because it can seem more feasible to pay off. In Florida, like other states with protracted foreclosure processes, borrowers tend to focus on other debts because they are unlikely to be evicted from their homes as quickly as in other states after receiving a foreclosure notice.