Journalist Kirstin Downey, who visits Friday afternoon 11/18 to talk about her new book on Frances Perkins, was writing in the Washington Post about risky mortgages as early as 2005, well before they were getting much coverage in other media outlets....
"The loans are attractive because their initial monthly payments are tantalizingly low -- about $1,367 a month for a $320,000 mortgage, compared with about $1,842 a month for a traditional 30-year, fixed-rate loan. If home prices fall, though, borrowers could lose big.
"It's a game of musical chairs," said Allen J. Fishbein, director of housing and credit policy at the Consumer Federation of America. "Somebody is going to have the chair pulled out from under them when they find prices have leveled out and they try to sell, only to find they can't sell for what they paid for it." More.
