Hope Now is an alliance of lenders and other organizations formed last fall to deal with the sub-prime mess. They just published data showing results through January.

It shows the overall delinquency rate at 1.21% for the first quarter, 2007, and climbing to 3.38% in January. That sounds distressing, and it is. But a closer look reveals that for those with prime loans, the first quarter 2007 delinquency rate was 0.40%, which has climbed to 1.42% in January.

That means that 98.58% of home owners with good credit who didn’t get funky loans are making their payments okay.

The real mess is in those funky loans, many of which never should have been made in the first place. Look at the difference. First quarter 2007 had a delinquent rate of 6.83%. In January, that number shot up to 18.59%. Unbelievable! That’s where all the mess is occurring today.

And unfortunately for us homeowners, all those short pays and foreclosures hitting the market place have been driving down home values.

But the upside to this mess is that lower home prices are making it easier for entry level buyers get into a home.