SUBPRIME WEB TIME

For every 1,000 homes in your farm area, how many have subprime or Alt-A mortgages? How many of those are in foreclosure? How many are REOs, low- or no-doc loans, or ARMs resetting within the next 12 months? That information is now at your fingertips. The Federal Reserve released a Web site, customizable down to the zip code level, that displays the prevalence of 12 different types of mortgage situations for either Alt-A or subprime mortgages. To focus on your farm area’s ZIP code, go to: http://www.newyorkfed.org/mortgagemaps. One note of warning, however: The new Web site has been slow to respond, perhaps the result of an onslaught of Web surfers curious to find out how things stack up in their own neighborhood. “We’re not interpreting the data for people, we are just hoping they use it as a resource,” says Andrew Williams, a spokesman for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which maintains the Web site and updates the maps monthly.

© 2008 FLORIDA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®

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