If this doesn’t tell you the RGV isn’t like the rest of the country, I don’t know what does.The number of foreclosures in Hidalgo County dropped by 19 percent in 2007. Only 339 homes went to the courthouse steps for the year, according to RealtyTrac, a foreclosure listing service.

Nationally, foreclosures went up a whopping 75 percent during the year, obviously fueled by the subprime mortgage meltdown.

Odd, isn’t it that the area with some of the highest poverty rates and mortgage delinquency rates would be near the bottom for foreclosures? Well, there are a few reasons:

1) A large number of loans here are technically subprime, which means either adjustable rate or have higher than “prime” interest rates. But most of the area’s loans fall into that latter category. Obviously, people with less money will have higher interest rates. While their loans are expensive, mortgage payments don’t go up.

2) Most loans here are government backed, like Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac loans. Those are never adjustable rate.

3) Local banks dominate the market, and they don’t like ARM loans. It’s strange, but Texas State Bank, First National Bank, Lone Star Bank and a few other local banks are the big players in the region. Wells Fargo, Bank of America and Chase (even with the Tower) are all smaller players locally. Local banks love the government-backed loans (It’s risky. You need a bigger base to make it work, which no one did). Big banks loved the adjustable-rate stuff.

4) House prices here haven’t fallen through the floor. It’s not easy to sell your home, but you can. So if you need to get out of your mortgage, just sell it. Simple. You may take a tiny loss, but its better than foreclosure.

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