The Subprime Mess & Health Reservation List

February 20, 2008

Where will the subprime pain be felt?

While Oregon has so far avoided the worst of the national housing crisis, recent trends are worrying. Home prices have turned negative in a rising share of neighborhoods and delinquencies are surging.

Driving the housing market's collapse are subprime loans.

OCPP has mapped the concentration of subprime loans by census tract for each state legislative district. These maps can assist efforts to ameliorate the impact of rising subprime delinquencies. One such effort is HB 3630, currently under debate in the Oregon Legislative Assembly. That bill would establish new consumer protections for borrowers facing foreclosure.

Read OCPP's latest Issue Brief Where Will the Pain Be? OCPP's subprime maps can help legislators target education about foreclosure scams addressed by HB 3630, which can be found here (HTML, with links to maps) and here (PDF, with maps).

Deadline approaches for health lottery registration

More than 65,000 Oregonians so far have signed up for the Oregon Health Plan (OHP) reservation list. Signing up for the OHP reservation list enters uninsured adults in a monthly lottery to apply for the subsidized health insurance plan.

The sign-up period ends on February 29.

Encourage uninsured Oregonians to get on the reservation list before the end-of-month deadline.

See here for more information.