Tools

St. Louis Fed Now Publishing Quarterly Economic Burgundy Books

You’ve probably heard of the Beige Book, the economic report that the Federal Reserve publishes eight times a year before each FOMC meeting. In March, the St. Louis Fed’s Center for Regional Economics—8th District (CRE8) released the first Burgundy Books.   

Like the Beige Book, the Burgundy Books provide anecdotal information and formal data to help assess current and future economic conditions within the District. The Burgundy Books are produced for each of the District’s four zones, which surround St. Louis, Little Rock, Louisville and Memphis. Fed economists provide audio commentary and supplement the Burgundy Books, which are published online only.

The new report will be published on a quarterly basis and will coincide with the release of a Beige Book report. The next Burgundy Books will be released June 26. (A Beige Book will come out June 11.)

Send Feedback Online to St. Louis Fed’s Accounting

The St. Louis Fed’s accounting customer support now offers depository institutions an online service feedback tool. 

The new online tool replaces the hard copy feedback card you may have received through regular mail in the past. Customers who contact the Fed for accounting information services now receive an e-mail survey a few days later. Your service expectations are important to the Fed; so, please look for this e-mailed survey and send your responses. 

You may have recently read in other Fed publications about accounting customer support services at the Dallas and Chicago Feds that are transitioning to the Minneapolis and Boston Feds, respectively. At this time, there are no plans for the St. Louis Fed to consolidate accounting customer support; local staff will continue to provide your accounting customer support services. 

Fed’s Maps Illustrate Subprime and Alt-A Loan Conditions

Do you need to know where subprime and Alt-A loans are having the biggest affect in your ZIP code, county or state? 

Use the Fed’s new dynamic maps of nonprime mortgage conditions in the United States. The maps, which are updated monthly, display regional variation in the condition of securitized, owner-occupied subprime and alt-A mortgage loans. Maps can be tailored to show specific information, including:

• loans per 1,000 housing units,
• loans in foreclosure per 1,000 housing units,
• loans real estate owned (REO) per 1,000 housing units,
• share of loans that are adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs),
• share of loans for which payments are current,
• share of loans that are 90-plus days delinquent,
• share of loans in foreclosure,
• median combined loan-to-value ratio (LTV) at origination,
• share of loans with low credit score (FICO) and high LTV at origination,
• share of loans with low or no documentation,
• share of ARMs with initial reset in the next 12 months, and
• share of loans with a late payment in the past 12 months.

The maps and data can be used to help identify existing and potential foreclosure hot spots. In turn, by knowing these locations you can assist community groups, which can mobilize resources to bring financial counseling and other support to at-risk homeowners. 

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