Readers suggested a topic on media viewpoints and the housing bubble. "My weekend topic suggestion would be examining what other bass-ackwards terms the media is using that clearly favor The Plight Of The Poor FB."

"The media shouldn’t assume that FB’s voices are the only ones that count and that a 'crisis' for them is a crisis for everyone. Falling prices don’t hurt the first time buyer hoping to break into the market."

"First time buyers enable people to become second-timers and so on. Why do the media continue to use this word to describe people being expected to repay what they’ve borrowed, instead of using it to describe people who have been priced out of the market and seen their savings thwarted by mutant price runups?"

"In line with this questionable and flagrant overuse of the word 'crisis' in this situation, is the bewildering mention of a 'moral hazard' on CNNMoney this morning to describe our government NOT being more generous with FB’s."

"Why are we using this term to describe government not bailing everyone out, when we should be using the term to describe lender/broker/agent/flipper/consumer greed pricing people out of homes?"

Another added, "The cheerleaders on the business news always twist everything that is said. For every one person that makes a honest comment, they have three people cheerleading to offset the comment or the host makes a final comment to sum up the cheerleaders point of view."

"I have never heard a discussion by MSM about this housing boom being a outright mania of speculation in real estate, that was funded by fraudulent lending set up by Wall Street and that is why prices are crashing."

The Atlanta Journal Constitution. "Mortgage market turmoil. A painful housing slump. Economic concerns don't get any worse than they are these days in America, right?"

"Wrong. Try coming to Britain. After a decade of unprecedented economic growth, this nation of perhaps the world's most overextended borrowers might finally be forced to pay the piper."

"High debt 'really snuck up on me without me realizing how bad things were getting,' said Erire Obano, who had to sell her London home this month after she remortgaged her property — twice — in order to pay her rising debts."

"As she fell behind on mortgage payments that rose from $1,200 a month five years ago to $4,000 a month today, 'I was living off credit cards there for a while and it wasn't a good thing,' she said. 'The debts just grew like crazy.'"

"As home prices tripled, with the average house price recently smashing through the $600,000 mark in London, owners borrowed against that value to fuel consumer spending."

"The number of people declaring bankruptcy jumped 28 percent in the year ended this June, while the number of home repossessions soared 30 percent."

From North Shore Sunday. "Last month, 4,527 homes went into foreclosure in Massachusetts. 'Our toes are just getting wet,' says Janet Hilton, a real estate broker in Rowley. 'There’s a massive tidal wave, a tsunami that’s about to hit us on the beach.'"

"Just about everyone is pointing a finger at subprime mortgages. Those loans might have been the Titanic for many homebuyers, but it was the sagging real estate market that cut loose the lifeboats. A lot of homeowners found themselves locked into mortgages that were written for more than the price they could get for their homes if they tried to sell."

"In hindsight, subprime lending looks almost like taking a kid who failed basic math and telling him he can still graduate as long as he passes calculus. 'In many cases borrowers facing difficulties are those who may have entered into loan products they didn’t understand,' says Dave Bernotas, president of East/West Mortgage Company in Peabody."

"Hilton agrees that a much the responsibility falls on the shoulders of mortgage companies and lenders who were only too happy to write loans for virtually anyone who appeared to be conscious and breathing."

"'They made it so easy for those poor souls who didn’t have the money to buy a home,' she says."

"But Nancy DelMaro, a senior VP for Coldwell Banker, says you also have to look at the climate in which those loans were written."

"Three years ago, people were thrilled with the red-hot real estate market. Lots of people, real estate brokers, lawyers, appraisers, movers, plumbers, electricians, carpenters, landscapers and newspapers that ran ads all made out when home sales were booming."

"That atmosphere of prosperity probably affected a lot of buyers, who figured that even if their rates did rise in three years, they would be earning more and doing better, says DelMaro."

"But now that the party is over, buyers with those subprime loans are left with the mess. And the toll on those people is enormous."

"'People have not only lost their homes, they’ve lost every dime they had,' says Hilton. 'And they are horrified because they think they have let their families down.'"

"DelMaro, who has been selling homes since 2000 and seen both the bubble and the bust in prices, agrees the personal costs of the mortgage mess have been enormous. Like other realtors, she has stories about couples and families who were devastated by the losses."

"'It breaks our hearts,' she says. 'It’s a tough time to be in real estate.'"