How does a person not understand the single most important investment in their life?
Many of them had never had one before... and they were lied to and about to get it. And didn't read what they were signing... and couldn't understand it if they did read it. Some signed papers that said they were making $7K a month to qualify when they were pulling in $2.5K-$3K to buy $600K houses on flex loans that had teaser monthly payments of $1500 a month but that would balloon up to $5000-$6000 in 5 years to reflect their actual rates... while the balance of the monthly payment that wasn't being made was being added to the overall amount owed. The chimera theory being that the owner's equity would climb faster than the his growing mortgage balance and the poor owner could bail out by selling at a profit to pay off the mortgage before the ballooning payment deadline and buy an even more expensive suburban mansion... when CRASH went the market... and the whole thing fell down like a housing market of cards.