[sethg]

You don’t need to live in the “ghetto parts” to be seduced by a long-term loan that has easy terms up front.

The subprime mortgage crisis was built on respectable hard-working middle-class families that were persuaded to take on debt like this for their own homes.

[lmm]

Really? I was under the impression it was largely those with little or no income. Have you got a breakdown to link to? Not saying you're wrong, genuinely curious.

[sethg]

http://seekingalpha.com/article/49701-subprime-mortgages-cro...

It doesn’t have exact numbers, but the tl;dr is that people from every income bracket were taking out subprime mortgages, including middle- and upper-class people who could qualify for prime mortgages but wanted to borrow even more.