Subprime Lending

Are politicians partially responsible.

I remember reading an article around 1998 when Clinton was touting that home ownership was the highest it had ever been in the US. The article cited lower down payments as giving more people the option to purchase a home. Traditional wisdom is that you put 20% down, but in the late 90s, people were putting 10% down because of the perception that owning your own home led to wealth...by paying a mortgage instead of rent you were gaining equity.

I remember thinking back then - these numbers are being artificially inflated by putting less money down. What a bunch of crap. And now, here we are 10 years later, the slippery slope having slid down a lot more...people now putting 1% down and owning more on the house than the house is worth...and we're in this mortgage crisis.

So are politicians to blame? Sure.