The Journal compared the fastest-growing high-rate loan markets to the rankings compiled by foreclosure-listing providers RealtyTrac Inc. and ForeclosureS.com. In Stockton, Calif., for example, high-rate loans accounted for 33% of total home-loan volume last year, up from 13% in 2004. During the first half of this year, the Stockton area had 8,169 foreclosure filings, or one for every 27 households. According to RealtyTrac, of Irvine, Calif., that makes Stockton the nation's foreclosure capital.

Seven of the 10 large metro areas now struggling with the highest foreclosure rates -- including Miami, Detroit and Las Vegas -- saw borrowers barrel into high-rate loans much faster than the country as a whole. In a forthcoming study in the Journal of the American Planning Association, Daniel Immergluck, an associate professor at Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, found a similar pattern between foreclosures occurring in early 2006 and cities with high subprime lending in 2003.

There are some less gloomy signs, too. Last year, the number of new high-rate loans fell 2% to about four million, after jumping 88% in 2005. That reflects the collapse of some of the most aggressive lenders and tightening credit standards of others. Slowing home sales have put the brakes on loan demand, and borrowers have grown more wary of mortgages with teaser rates and other gimmicks.

Yet last year's data show that even as the housing market was weakening, some lenders still were eager to make riskier loans. Banks and thrifts grabbed 52% of the market for high-rate loans last year, up from 44% in 2005. SunTrust Banks Inc., of Atlanta, long known as a conservative lender, more than doubled the number of high-rate loans made by its mortgage unit. Smaller banks such as First National Bank of Arizona, part of First National Bank Holding Co. of Scottsdale, Ariz., also revved up their riskier mortgage lending last year.

Joel Gottesman, chairman of First National's mortgage division, says much of the jump reflects borrowers who got second mortgages. The bank has since scaled back that business, he says. SunTrust's increase reflects that it "was comparatively late getting into this area," says a spokesman. He added that the jump was heightened by changes in interest rates.