Flutterby™! : Your mileage may vary...

The Denver Post had a piece this weekend where they compared the change in housing prices and mortgage default rates on a neighborhood by neighborhood basis. The results are very telling. Neighborhoods with relatively high priced houses ($500K+ in Denver is high) have felt almost negligible effects from the housing bubble compared to neighborhoods with relatively low priced houses (around $250K). The claim, according to the Post, is that people who buy $500K+ houses are better insulated from the economy.

I think they missed the mark. I think this provides evidence of predatory lending practices. I bet the people buying these houses in the lower-priced bracket were more easily persuaded into risky mortgages. There is a direct correlation between literacy rates and income levels. Understanding mortgages can be very complex. The process of understanding becomes even more difficult when you throw in emotional draws like "getting rich quick from the appreciation on your house". But that's my 2 cents...