The difference here is that many of the people caught in the mortgage crisis could afford homes, they just couldn't afford the really nice homes that they bough

The difference here is that many of the people caught in the mortgage crisis could afford homes, they just couldn't afford the really nice homes that they bought. People who's finances would reasonably put them in a $250,000 home were instead buying $750,000 homes on the idea that the price would only go up and the loans were cheap.