Housing Delinquencies Greatest with Homes Valued at more than $1 Million

There is a common perception that the financial housing crisis was caused by banks and mortgage institutions extending credit to poor or near poor and working class Americans. The theory has been that certain members of the U.S. Congress pushed financial institutions into lowering their credit standards, thus, the housing bubble and subsequent collapse.

In today's New York Times, an article contends that home owners who have homes valued at $1 million or more actually have the nation's highest delinquency rate. "More than one in seven homeowners with loans in excess of a million dollars are seriously delinquent, according to data compiled for The New York Times by the real estate analytics firm CoreLogic."

So, was the housing crisis caused by banks extending credit to the poor, near poor, or working class? Or is the answer more nuanced? The article hints that perhaps more of the speculation was at the high end of the housing market:

www.nytimes.com/2010/07/09/business/economy/09rich.html?pagewanted=1