The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight said yesterday that it will begin publishing a monthly housing price index, according to a report by Reuters. The news agency reported that Edward DeMarco, deputy director of OFHEO, told attendees at the New York Society of Security Analysts forum Thursday that the agency would move to move to a monthly reporting format beginning in March. OFHEO’s HPI data has previously been published only on a quarterly basis. Reuters’ coverage also had some input on market trends from DeMarco:
“For subprime loans, the seriously delinquent rate is now approaching levels of the 2001 recession,” DeMarco said. “The difference, of course, is that there are now over two times more subprime loans outstanding than there were in 2001.” “We’re all hearing, and certainly the books of the two enterprises are showing, that delinquences are spreading to other parts of the real estate market,” he added.
In other words: it’s a housing leverage problem now.
