Size and Scale of the Mortgage Mess

The current foreclosure nightmare is big and it is far from clear how it will be resolved. Many in the finance industry and government claim that the halt of foreclosures will be over soon and things will keep moving. It would be nice to believe this, but we have heard this type of talk before. The bigger issue is that the American economy is far from being out of the woods with this housing crisis. This graphic from the Wall Street Journal shows the current size and scope of the problem.

Mortgage Origination and the Housing Bubble

This is a good chart showing the types of mortgages (origination) during the housing bubble. It just shows percentages, so it does not give an idea of the changes in the net amount of mortgages during this period (which was also increasing and then crashing down). However, it does give an idea of how the bubble was expanded with riskier mortgages.