from the New York Fed
As part of a new initiative to examine communities in more detail and enable locational comparisons, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York released an interactive tool that provides information about home prices, distressed sales, delinquencies and foreclosures at the national, state and county levels. Users can also view the housing-related categories over time (from 2006 to present) and compare categories across all three geographic levels.
The data are expected to be updated twice a year. The New York Fed also plans to release additional interactive tools that profile community access to and use of traditional credit. The profiles will enable peer comparisons and benchmarking of the impact of community programs and activities.
This project builds on the New York Fed’s ongoing work to provide policymakers, community and business leaders with information and analysis on financial conditions for households and small businesses.
Homeownership is a widely acknowledged marker of economic well-being, especially for under-served communities. As such, monitoring and assessing the health of local mortgage markets is of continuing interest for a broad spectrum of stakeholders. Mortgages are only a partial indicator of community well-being, however. Other Community Credit Profiles will examine community credit more directly from the perspective of local borrowers and view mortgages as a component of the entire portfolio of credit products and services held by individuals.
The Mortgage Market Profiles view our communities through the lens of 1-4 family mortgages and address the following types of concerns:
- To what extent have local home prices recovered relative to the national peak levels of April 2006? Under the Home Prices tab, if the measure is positive, then prices have fully recovered and homeowners are most likely once again building equity in their homes.
- What percent of existing-home sales are due to distressed properties? This measure helps gauge the possible influence of distressed properties on local housing markets.
- What percent of 1-4 family mortgages are 90 or more days past due? A high value for this measure indicates financial difficulties and distress for local homeowners.
- What percent of 1-4 family mortgages are in foreclosure? The higher this measure, the more distressed homeowners and/or properties in that geography. (For locational comparisons, please note that these values are higher in the so-called ‘judicial’ states because of their legal process)
