Who would have thought? At one point the article notes the rapid rise in delinquency and foreclosure rates among prime mortgages, noting that almost 4 percent of all prime loans were in one or the other category last September. It is worth noting that the delinquency and foreclosure rates are far higher among recently issued prime mortgages, with some series showing rates of close to 10 percent for mortgages issued in 2007. The overall rate is held down by the large number of old prime mortgages that have been largely paid off. In many ways, the recent prime loans are the better comparison with the subprime market, because there are relatively few old subprime loans in existence.
--Dean Baker
