…they all took the risk with open eyes. (Except neither understood the housing bubble likely was going to bust terribly. The experts in economics and government bank/mortgage regulation didn’t either.) I think a minority had a death, divorce, job loss, health issue, etc. and lost their home. They were mostly victims, but the mortgage lender/investor was also a victim and their actions did not cause these situations. So, how many were caused by evil mortgage lenders preying on mortgage victims? I bet not 1 in 10 foreclosures. But frankly I am just speculating and quite unbelievably no one really knows for sure, because no statistically-valid study of the primary reasons millions of mortgage borrowers defaulted and were foreclosed upon has, to my knowledge, ever been conducted by the government or another reliable party. It’s somewhat like Ferguson in my view. Some, for their own reasons, don’t want to hear or understand the facts and the truth about what really happened, because they will not even consider anything that does not support their “story” or “reality”. Laying out the facts and the truth about the financial and housing/mortgage crisis, is a major purpose behind my blog.”, Mike Perry, former Chairman and CEO, IndyMac Bank, (responding to an anonymous blog question related to the Coronels’ blog postings: “This story is classic, and probably not an outlier…how many might there be?”)