Our Say:Mortgage market may be headed for meltdown

Those of you old enough to be a part of the baby boom generation - or older - remember how hard it was to get a home loan. A bad credit rating was sure death. You may have had to have a parent co-sign your first loan.

If you did get the loan, one thing was clear: The lender was confident you could afford it.

That's not always the case today. With growing competition among mortgage lenders and a shrinking pool of customers, the qualifications for borrowing hundreds of thousands dollars have loosened. There is even a second tier - subprime loans - for those with shaky finances and bad credit ratings. If the loans fail, the...