The turmoil in the U.S. banking industry hasn't hit Idaho as hard as it has some other states. Gavin Gee, the director of the Idaho Department of Finance, hopes policymakers keep that in mind as they react to the credit crisis. Here are five key points Gee made in an interview:

Idaho's delinquent mortgage rate is far below the national average.

Gee uses the ratings from the Mortgage Bankers Association's quarterly delinquency survey, which is based on 45 million mortgages - about 85 percent of all the outstanding loans in the U.S. housing market.

Delinquent properties are those with payment 90 days or more past due, or in foreclosure.

The national rate was 4.03 percent of mortgages, Gee said. Idaho's rate was 1.92 percent, putting the state at 44th in the nation.

"We've had a better unemployment rate than many states - one of the lowest unemployment rates for a long period of time," he said. "And we didn't have as rapid runup in real estate values as a lot of the states that are having the most difficult problems with foreclosure. It wasn't nearly the rapid rise you saw in Florida, Las Vegas, California, Arizona."

Foreclosures have hit speculators hard.

"A lot of the homes that are being foreclosed are homes that were purchased on speculation by investors.

"Obviously there are homes where the family is being displaced. And those are obviously tragedies.

"But a lot of it is due to speculation. Speculators would come into a new subdivision and just buy up 10 homes, and maybe never even rent those homes, just hoping to cash in on the rapid rise in values. Those homes that didn't get sold are now being possibly foreclosed on."

Lenders would rather refinance a loan than foreclose.

"In almost all cases, it's better for a lender to avoid foreclosure if at all possible, because they lose money when they have to foreclose on a home.

Quite often the house is in less-than-desirable condition. Quite often homeowners, if they're facing foreclosure, don't maintain the home. Some will even trash the home.

So it costs the lender to get the house in saleable condition.

"And in a declining real estate market, which we're currently in in most areas of the state, they're going to take a loss.

"A lot of lenders are very willing to work with borrowers to rewrite loans to have the borrower stay in the home and make payments."

State-chartered banks avoided subprime loans.

"For the most part, the Idaho banks did not make the subprime loans.

"That's not to say those loans aren't out there, because they are offered by other financial-service providers. Some of the big banks that we don't regulate do make those kinds of loans. They're riskier.

"Our banks are more conservative. They tend to make the more traditional type of loan."

Many subprime borrowers are keeping up with their payments.

"Not every subprime loan is a bad loan. Not every subprime loan is in default or foreclosure.

"There are a lot of lower-income, moderate-income people who were able to enjoy the benefits of homeownership as a result of subprime loans.

"So there's a very legitimate side of the subprime market. They're making their payments. Homeownership provides all kinds of benefits. It's most people's largest investment.

"We don't want to clamp down so hard that we cut off legitimate mortgage lending, because that would have disastrous consequences for consumers who want to buy a home, and have means to buy a home.

"And it would have disastrous consequences for the economy."

Anne Wallace Allen: 377-6433