From Paul Jackson at Housing Wire:
Fitch Downgrades National City, Wamu, Others on Home Equity Concerns Deterioration within home equity portfolios will clearly emerge in first-quarter 2008,” the agency said in a press statement late Friday, “which is earlier than Fitch previously expected.”
...
“Home equity delinquency rates are rising at a far more rapid pace than even most bankers’ and analysts’ grim outlook for 2008 had anticipated,” it said. The agency characterized home equity loans originated by brokers, and located in a locale enduring swift price declines such as California, as “particularly toxic.”
HELOCs.
Alt-As. We are all subprime now.