Quote from Scataphagos:
Years ago we never had these kinds of mortgage problems. But then, a home loan required (a) 20% down payment (or PMI... Private Mortgage Insurance.. until the equity reached 20% of the loan), (b) mortgage loan couldn't exceed a certain percentage of income, and (c) the loans were underwritten to assess that there was a high probability that the loan would be repaid.
. Cool, thanks