Tuggeranong home owners find it hardest to make mortgage repayments, according to new figures that show the southern suburbs have the highest rate of arrears in the ACT.
Canberra welfare agencies say it is not just the poor who are struggling: middle-class families are seeking help in unprecedented numbers as the global financial crisis and increased cost of living takes its toll.
An analysis of ''mortgage delinquency'' around Australia by credit rating agency Fitch Ratings found that from November 2007 to September 2008 the number of mortgages more than 30 days in arrears increased from about 1.4 to 2.1 per cent.
The report found the ACT fared better than the states.
The Tuggeranong postcodes of 2905 and 2906 including the suburbs Calwell, Bonython, Chisholm, Conder, Banks and Gordon struggled the most, with about 1.3per cent of mortgages at least one month behind in repayments.
Also struggling were the postcodes 2620, which includes Queanbeyan and Oaks Estate; 2617, which includes Belconnen, Bruce and Kaleen; and 2914 Amaroo, Bonner, Forde and Harrison.
ACT Council of Social Service director Roslyn Dundas said middle-class families were seeking financial help in unprecedented numbers, and people with fixed home loan interest rates were not feeling the relief of recent rate cuts.
''It's not just people who we normally see accessing support services. It's a growing cohort of the Canberra community, those on middle incomes are struggling to make ends meet because of all these financial pressures coming in at once,'' she said.
St Vincent de Paul Society deputy chief executive Mike Taarnby said more people would be seeking help in the lead-up to Christmas, but it might not end there.
''What we are seeing is a slight increase in people seeking assistance for the first time that come from dual-income families, who would otherwise not come across our radar,'' he said.
''At this time of year we tend to get a rush of people in the final weeks leading up to Christmas, but we suspect this surge could just be the beginning as we go into the new year when the reality of mortgages and [the global financial crisis] really hits home.''
Fitch managing director of structured finance Ben McCarthy said although the report did not take into account the October and November interest rate cuts and the fall in fuel prices, an expected increase in unemployment and expenditure in the lead-up to Christmas was expected to result in more people falling behind on mortgage repayments.
The report found south-western and western Sydney remain the nation's mortgage stress hot spots, but suburbs in Perth, the Gold Coast and NSW regional areas, including Wollongong, Newcastle and the Central Coast, are also suffering.
Helensvale, on the Gold Coast, is the most mortgage-stressed suburb in Australia at 7.8 per cent, and one of the nation's most affluent spots, Vaucluse in eastern Sydney, rated seventh worst at 6 per cent.
The rates were calculated by taking the total dollar amount of mortgages in the postcode that are outstanding and have missed one or more payments, and dividing it by the total dollar amount of loans outstanding for that postcode.
Only postcodes owing at least $100 million were included.
The report is based on more than 840,000 securitised residential mortgages valued at $140billion, which make up 15 per cent of the entire home loan market.