@vertigo
it wasn't that people couldn't afford their mortgages.
It was a 1-5.25% leap on interest rates coupled with predatory lending that in some cases had 10-15% interest for a property.
The idea was to have a home and instead of paying it off, pay the interest each month sort of like rent, but for a nice home rather than an apartment.
However, then you couldn't get out of the agreement like an apartment, and people divorce each other and for whatever reason, defaults skyrocketed.
This was not because of sub-prime mortgages, but because of predatory using sub-prime lending as the vehicle, an avenue allowed to them by deregulation.
BTW: at first, everyone backed sub-prime mortgages. It was the banks who abused the situation and were given the power to do so by the republicans.
