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Even now, the ads on television, radio and the internet continue: "Is your credit bad? Don't worry, we'll provide the loan for the home of your dreams ..." What those commercials should, but do not, add is: go through the small print with a toothcomb. Or else you, too, could be swept up in America's subprime mortgage crisis.
Just as in Britain, homeownership is a traditional goal of American society. But as interest rates have climbed and the housing market has slumped, the number of what are politely called "delinquent" loans has soared. And as home repossessions grow, civil rights groups and presidential contenders alike are stepping into the row over the high risk, or subprime, mortgage market.
In the most sweeping call yet, a coalition of civil rights organisations have demanded a six-month moratorium on foreclosures. They want lenders - whose reckless and sometimes predatory policies are largely blamed for the crisis - to help victims refinance their mortgages, or face law suits.
"We know that there are safe and affordable loans that meet the needs of our communities," said Janet Murguia, the president of the National Council of La Raza, the biggest Hispanic civil rights group in the US, noting that minority groups were especially hard hit by the crisis. Lenders should "match families to the sustainable loans that they should have had in the first place", she added.
The subprime crisis has erupted over the past few months as borrowing rates have turned upwards while house prices have fallen steeply in many parts of the country. All sectors of the mortgage market have been affected but none more so than subprime loans, extended to borrowers with shaky credit histories.
Typically they carry interest rates 2 or 3 per cent above conventional mortgages. But, under complicated formulas, which critics say can come close to fraud, they usually offer very low "teaser" rates for a limited period.
As long as house values were on an upward path, they appeared to carry little risk. People were able to take on far more debt than they could afford. But when interest rates climbed sharply in 2005 and 2006, many were left facing payments they could not meet.
"I feel like they took advantage of me because I'm 77," Jennie Haliburton, one distressed borrower, told a congressional panel investigating the crisis last month. Ms Haliburton said she signed up for a loan with initial monthly payments of $700. However, these jumped to $1,300, an impossible sum for a widow living off a $1,800-a-month social security income.
Her plight drew an emotional response from the Senate Banking Committee, and helped turn the mortgage crisis into a major political issue here.
The Connecticut senator Christopher Dodd, the chairman of the committee and a Democratic presidential candidate, condemned such "risky, exotic mortgages". He accused the Federal Reserve of failing to use existing laws to regulate the market and maintain proper standards. More than two million Americans could see their homes repossessed over the next few years, he warned.
Other Democratic contenders for the White House have leapt into the fray.
Barack Obama has called for a "homeownership preservation summit" between lending groups, regulators and borrowers. "We cannot sit on the sidelines while increasing numbers of families face the risk of losing their homes," he said.
Hillary Clinton wants better protection for borrowers: "This market is clearly broken and if we don't fix it it could threaten our entire housing market," she said last week.
But the industry is resisting the moratorium, calling it an "over-reaction" to the difficulties of the market. Although more
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