Faced with high unemployment and strategic default rates, mortgage investors are more focused than ever before on achieving greater transparency into the collateral health of non-agency mortgage-backed securities. While there has been some preliminary research on payment and default hierarchy, Equifax Capital Markets has taken a unique approach to analyzing borrower behavior. In a recent study, Equifax defined a new metric – default distance – which provides strategic insight into default timing. Default distance is the number of months between the default of a revolving debt and the first occurrence of foreclosure (as reported by MBA status) in a non-agency securitized mortgage. A positive number means that a borrower defaulted on a revolving debt first while a negative number indicates that the borrower defaulted on their mortgage loan first.   Source: Equifax Press Release