A new study out from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis reminds us once again that, while the mortgage crisis is bad here, it is worse in other places.

The rate of delinquent loans in the Fed’s 8th District (see a map here) was lower and grew slower than the nation as a whole last year, according to a team of St. Louis Fed researchers. That’s a significant change from earlier years, when delinquencies here outpaced the U.S. average.

At the end of 2008, 1.52 percent of prime loans were at least 90 days overdue in 8th District states, compared to 1.86 nationwide. This delinquency rate is widely considered to be a leading indicator for foreclosures, and grew considerably over the past year as foreclosure problems spread beyond borrowers with risky subprime loans and into the broader economy. At the end of 2007, 0.71 percent of prime loans were delinquent nationwide, and 0.78 percent in the 8th District.

The report sticks to the data and doesn’t provide any analysis, but it’s worth noting that there are few housing markets in the 8th District that saw big price bubbles in the last few years and, except for Indiana and parts of the St. Louis area, the region has been spared the worst of the manufacturing crunch that’s hit places like Michigan and Ohio.

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