2. By 2008, before the US financial crisis began in earnest, 28 million
subprime loans were outstanding in the United States—half of all US
mortgages—and 74 percent of them were on the books of government agencies or
government-backed or -regulated entities.

3. In 2009, one in four taxpayers
itemized mortgage interest,
accounting for about two-thirds of
the mortgage interest paid by all
borrowers.

4. Since 1986,
residential
mortgage debt has
increased from 39
percent of gross
domestic product to
50 percent in 1999 and
then to 75 percent in
2007.
1986 1999 2007

5. During 2003, equity
extraction totaled $400
billion, with over $700
billion extracted in each of
2004 and 2005.

6. The average U.S.
homeowner has
less than 7
percent equity in
the home. As
recently as 1990, U.S.
home equity was 45
percent.

7. By 2008, before the financial crisis,
Fannie and Freddie . . . either held
or had guaranteed 13.4 million
subprime or other nonprime
mortgages; the government as a
whole . . . held or had insured over 20
million similar nonprime mortgages.
This amounted to 74 percent of the
28 million nonprime mortgages
present in the U.S. financial system
before the financial crisis.

8. In 1989, only 1 in 230 homebuyers bought a
home with a down payment of 3
percent or less, but by 2003 1 in 7 buyers
was providing a down payment at that level, and
by 2007 the number was less than 1 in 3.

9. In 1993 the FHA began to increase the
percentage of its loans that
involved down payments of less
than 3 percent.
13% in 1992
28% in 1996
50% in 2000

10. The FHA has increased its market share
of home purchase loans, from 8 percent in 2007 43%
to 43 percent in 2010.
8%

11. In 2006, 20 percent of all originations were subprime mortgages and about
three-quarters of these were securitized.

12. Underlying the giant housing
bubble that drew private
institutions in was a government
investment that in 2008 consisted
of 20.4 million subprime and other
risky loans—about three times the
size of the PMBS market.