More than one in seven US homebuyers with subprime loans failed to keep up with mortgage payments in the second quarter, in a sign of growing distress in the housing market.

More than 619,000 homeowners – or 1.4 per cent of all those with mortgages – 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.