Buried deep (page 8) in a letter from Federal Housing Finance Agency James Lockhart to Sen. Chris Dodd is this unsettling piece of data: The number of prime mortgages with payments 60 or more days late soared from 497,131 in December to 743,686 in January -- a 50 percent increase. HT Calculated Risk.

The Daily Record's Robbie Whelan has a related story:

For most of the recent housing crisis, subprime mortgages have been in the spotlight. The coming year will be different, according to one Federal Reserve official.

“Across the board … we’re seeing an increase in delinquencies,” said R. Andrew Bauer, regional economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond. “What we’re going to be talking about in 2009 is the prime market.”