More than one in seven US homebuyers with subprime loans failed to keep up with mortgage payments in the second quarter - the second consecutive quarter of record growth in the rate of foreclosures.

More than 619,000 mortgagees - or 1.4 per cent of all those with home loans - now face the prospect of repossession, up from 1.28 per cent in the first quarter, according to estimates by the Mortgage Bankers Association. Total delinquencies rose to their highest level since 2002 - by 0.28 percentage points to 5.12 per cent of all mortgages.