Synergos Touts New Mortgage-Risk Data

Synergos Technologies Inc., Austin, Texas, has announced the addition of mortgage-risk data to its quarterly STI:PopStats population data product. The new data, which highlight risk levels created by lending practices involving subprime and adjustable-rate mortgages, represent the first time that mortgage risk has been identified at the neighborhood level across the United States, Synergos said. Among the data fields added to the index are the number of mortgage transactions and average loan-to-income ratios. Company president Robert Welch cited several surprises in the mortgage data, including the discovery that Minneapolis and Baltimore scored high in mortgage risk, and that Houston has only a few pockets of high-risk mortgage activity while Los Angeles has such activity in most neighborhoods. "With today's economy in flux, econometrics is playing a larger role in growing and sustaining profitable businesses," Mr. Welch said. The index can be found online at http://www.popstats.com.