90% of homeowners take out subprime from ’98 to ’06.

This really got my attention, as that number seems exceedingly high. This would mean that 9 out of every 10 homes were refinanced/purchased with a subprime loan…

To clarify, what the article actually states is that the number of subprime loans made during that period (which is a fraction of all mortgages), 90% were refi’s.

[quote]Discussion of the problem often focuses on first-time home buyers who stretched to buy homes they couldn’t afford. But experts who’ve crunched the numbers say 90% of people who took out sub-prime loans from 1998 to 2006 were already homeowners.[/quote]

This would tend to support the predatory lending thesis (in addition to the lack of due diligence by the homeowner).