Fewer Subprime Mortgages, Yes, But We're No L.A.

New data from NYU's Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy shows (PDF) that the rate of new subprime mortgages in New York City declined from 2005 through 2006. The rate of subprime lending in the five boroughs dropped from 22.9 percent of conventional mortgages issued by subprime lenders to 19.8 percent in 2006.

But here's the bad news in two parts:

First, this annual decline wasn't as sharp as in other big cities, like Boston, Los Angeles and Chicago. (Washington, D.C., saw an increase.)

Second, the highest rates of subprime lending in the city are in poorer neighborhoods like East Flatbush, Brownsville, East New York and Bedford-Stuyvesant.

In fact, Manhattan continued to have virtually no subprime mortgages in 2006. The Observer earlier this year explained why the borough usually doesn't.