Pay your mortgage. In fact pay your mortgage early in order to avoid the outrageous compound interest that accompanies most mortgages - upwards of 115%. This is what I've said all along. The best thing we can do to reform the housing lending industry is to take charge of the way we pay our own home loans.

However, many people who did pay off their homes, or nearly so, were encouraged by the lure of easy cash to refinance so they could take cash out of their home equity and use that cash for other things.

Consider this graphic of Cleveland, Ohio, prepared by Case Western Reserve and reported by BBC News in November, 2007:

The green-shaded area on the left shows the density of subprime lending–mostly refinances. The red-shaded area shows black population density. The map of foreclosures is similar.

The individual and local brokerage offering and writing these loans made a higher commission as a percentage of the price of the loan. Higher interest rates to consumers equalled higher commissions to frontline lenders. Whether or not the Black Americans were clearly told their new lower interest rate would double in two years - whether it was explained until they understood it - is doubtful.

Draw your own conclusions.