One reader wants to discuss the mortgage sector. "How about an update on the mortgage business. With emphasis on what is happening at the smaller shops."

Kenneth Harney at the Washington Post wrote about a challenge facing the industry. "An important debate is raging inside the home mortgage market, though well beyond the earshot of most consumers. The issue: Popular 'payment-option,' interest-only and piggyback loans; and the financial risks they pose to home buyers and lenders alike."

"On the one hand, federal financial regulators say the risks are too significant to ignore, so lenders need to take special care in evaluating and approving customers who apply for these mortgages. The regulators want to impose new creditworthiness restrictions and disclosure requirements."

"Banks and mortgage companies, on the other hand, aren't happy about the regulators' plans. Between January and the end of March, lenders bombarded federal banking regulators with demands to back off or soften the proposed new rules."

"Why all the fuss? And what might it mean for you as a home buyer or refinancer? The fuss derives from the fact that payment-option, piggyback, interest-only and other creative loans types can prove toxic for applicants who don't understand them."

"The question is whether most lenders are taking pains to educate borrowers about how the loans work or whether they have been mass-marketing dangerous mortgages to people with borderline credit profiles, low down payments and minimal knowledge."

"Nick Nickerson, a mortgage consultant in Durham, N.C., said '100 percent' of his clients 'invest their savings..and end up financially ahead. I insist that each client have a financial planner involved and the mortgage payment savings are direct-deposited to their investment account.'"

"Lenders 'don't want borrowers to default,' said Nickerson. 'Negative amortization is simply a way of taking equity out of your home slowly over time rather than all at once.'"

"A Rocky Mountain News columnist thinks the loans are causing problems in Colorado. "Colorado ranked eighth among states in per-capita income growth last year, recent figures show. But it's also at the personal finance level that the rosy outlook is roiled. I'm talking about first-quarter home foreclosures in the Denver area and their disturbing 31.5 percent rate of growth over the same period in 2005. This past quarter, 4,764 of your neighbors had their homes seized."

"'I'm very concerned at how much they did go up,' said Patty Silverstein. 'Given this stage of economic recovery in Colorado, I would think we wouldn't have this many. There's something else going on."

'"I have to think some of the mortgage products people are making use of are a big contributing factor, the interest-only loans, the variable-rate loans. When interest rates increase a bit, people can't make the payments. I think they're the ones who are driving the foreclosure numbers upward,' Silverstein said."

"A quick look around reveals eye-catching variable loan rates of 0.9 percent, 1.75 percent, 1 percent. 'No payments for six months,' one ad screams. But what happens then?"