This example of how standardization helped jump-start a marketplace may provide insights regarding the current challenges in the subprime markets as well as the development of the community development investment market. As of January 2008, the most recent month for which data are available, about 24 percent of subprime adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) were 90 or more days delinquent, twice the level one year earlier.
3 Roughly 190,000 foreclosures were started on these mortgages in the fourth quarter, up 11 percent from the previous quarter. 4 The cost of foreclosures is high for lenders, investors, communities and causes severe disruption and distress to individuals and families.