DAYTON -- Janice Lattimore Brown faced a mountain of bills after her son's car crash. So when a broker told her she could reduce her monthly house payment with a specialty mortgage, she signed on without reading the fine print.

For the first three years, she paid about $700 per month on a fixed rate. But then an adjustable rate indexed to mortgage trends kicked in. Last year, just when she was laid off from her clerical job, her monthly payment climbed to $1,200.