Maps Track Markets’ Foreclosure Risk

To date, excessive foreclosure activity in the Portland metro area has been kept bay, perhaps due to generally stable housing prices and less participation by Oregonians in riskier subprime mortgages than other national housing markets. (Note, I’m not saying we’re immune–just less affected.)

RealtyTrac.com is the default oracle for foreclosure information–showing Oregon at #24 nationally for foreclosure activity with 1,415 in January, up double that of January 2007.

Recently the the Federal Reserve Bank of New York has released an interactive mortgage map for owner-occupied (non-investment) homes, tracking subprime and Alt-A loans.

Users can start with a view of the entire U.S. and drill down to state, county, and zipcode levels to view various risk areas such as percent of low FICO score loans, resetting adjustable rate mortgages, delinquencies, and foreclosures.

These interactive charts show the “regional variation in the condition of securitized, owner-occupied subprime, and alt-A mortgage loans” according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

You can check out the map here (or click the image). and read more about the Fed’s foreclosure resources for consumers.

To be honest, I did not see a lot of variation within the metro area to note. The data is to be updated monthly, so perhaps we’ll see more activity as ARMs reset and local housing inventory remains high. Perhaps the non-owner occupied properties are the lion’s share of defaults and won’t be reflected on the Fed’s map. A couple disturbing Oregon trends: 35% of subprime loans have had 1 payment late in 12 months, and 41% of subprime ARMS are resetting in 12 months.

(Hat tip to Mike Rohrig and Scott Bridwell.)

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8 comments April 7th, 2008