La crisis hipotecaria se mueve más allá de los créditos "subprime"

Esto no se acaba... ¡Hasta que se acaba!

"This collapse in housing value is sucking in all borrowers," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com.

Like subprime mortgages, many prime loans made in recent years allowed borrowers to pay less initially and face higher adjustable payments a few years later. As long as home prices were rising, borrowers on these terms could refinance their loans or sell their properties to pay off their mortgages.

Although the rise in prime delinquencies is less severe than the one in the subprime market, with prices falling and lenders clamping down, homeowners with solid credit are starting to come under the same financial stress as those with subprime credit.

"Subprime was a symptom of the problem," said James Keegan, a bond portfolio manager at American Century Investments, a mutual fund company. "The problem was, we had a debt or credit bubble."