http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-foreclose13feb13,0,791237,full.story?coll=la-home-headlines
"The biggest problem, Bosch believes, was created by the lenders. They used to be cautious. They'd want the borrower's tax returns, pay stubs and bank statements, and it would all have to match up. The borrower would make three times his monthly payment. He'd have to scrape together a down payment.
Sub-prime loans changed all this. Originally these high-interest loans for credit-challenged buyers were a small segment of the market. But as houses got more expensive, fewer buyers qualified under the traditional guidelines, so they went sub-prime.
Lenders would take their word on income. They no longer needed down payments. They didn't worry that their loans would soon reset to higher interest payments.
Nobody cared too much as long as prices went up, although many people in the business knew the day of reckoning wasn't canceled but merely postponed.
"To make a living, you had to push a product you didn't believe in," said Aimee Quigley, a Home Center mortgage broker. "It was like being a defense attorney where you know your client did it, but you have to say he didn't."
Quigley says she tried to emphasize how quickly these loans would adjust, causing payments to balloon, but the message rarely got through.
"Nine out of ten times when these loans closed, we would sit there and say, 'How long can they hold it together?' "
Now the initial wave of those who can't hold it together need to do something, but Quigley can't help them. Some sub-prime lenders have gone out of business; other banks have tightened their standards. Money isn't free anymore "