Slipping Scores

(from Auto Finance News, 3/3/08)

Credit scores are sliding fast. In just a single month, deteriorations in average risk scores among car buyers nationwide are noticeable, according to data from Experian Automotive. The maps below color-code risk scores for October and November 2007, the most recent months for which

data was available. Average scores in California, for instance,dropped to the 676-to-691 range in November, from 700-to-702 a month earlier. Some Northeast states realized 15-to-20-point declines in average scores. Call it the Color of Credit.