By RICK BROOKS and RUTH SIMON

One common assumption about the subprime mortgage crisis is that it revolves around borrowers with sketchy credit who couldn't have bought a home without paying punitively high interest rates. But it turns out that plenty of people with seemingly good credit are also caught in the subprime trap. ⁽¹⁾

An analysis for The Wall Street Journal of more than $2.5 trillion in subprime loans made since 2000 shows that as the number of subprime loans mushroomed, an increasing proportion of them went to people with credit scores high enough to often qualify for conventional loans with far better terms. ⁽²⁾

In 2005, the peak year of the subprime boom, the study says that borrowers with such credit scores got more than half -- 55% -- of all subprime mortgages that were ultimately packaged into securities for sale to investors, as most subprime loans are. ⁽³⁾

The study by First American LoanPerformance, a San Francisco research firm, says the proportion rose even higher by the end of 2006, to 61%. The figure was just 41% in 2000, according to the study. Even a significant number of borrowers with top-notch credit signed up for expensive subprime loans, the firm's analysis found.

The numbers could have dramatic implications for how banks and U.S. regulators address the meltdown in subprime loans. Major banks, mortgage companies and investment firms have been rocked by billions of dollars in losses as shaky subprime loans -- which typically carry much higher, or rising, rates and other potentially onerous costs -- have increasingly gone into default. Many analysts expect hundreds of thousands more loans could go bad over the next several years. The Bush administration and major financial institutions are working on a plan to freeze interest rates of certain subprime loans in hopes of avoiding an even bigger meltdown. ⁽⁴⁾

The surprisingly high number of subprime loans among more credit-worthy borrowers shows how far such mortgages have spread into the economy -- including middle-class and wealthy communities where they once were scarce. They also affirm that thousands of borrowers took out loans -- perhaps foolishly -- with little or no documentation, or no down payment, or without the income to qualify for a conventional loan of the size they wanted. ⁽⁵⁾  

The analysis also raises pointed questions about the practices of major mortgage lenders. Many borrowers whose credit scores might have qualified them for more conventional loans say they were pushed into risky subprime loans. They say lenders or brokers aggressively marketed the loans, offering easier and faster approvals -- and playing down or hiding the onerous price paid over the long haul in higher interest rates or stricter repayment terms. ⁽⁶⁾  

Sales Pitch

The subprime sales pitch sometimes was fueled with faxes and emails from lenders to brokers touting easier qualification for borrowers and attractive payouts for mortgage brokers who brought in business. One of the biggest weapons: a compensation structure that rewarded brokers for persuading borrowers to take a loan with an interest rate higher than the borrower might have qualified for. ⁽⁷⁾

There isn't a hard-and-fast rule on what makes a loan subprime. But generally they are riskier than regular mortgages because lenders are more willing to bend traditional underwriting standards to accommodate borrowers. Besides having a lower credit score, borrowers might wind up with a subprime loan if the mortgage was considered risky for other reasons -- such as borrowing a higher percentage of income or home value than normal, or borrowing without documenting income or assets. The resulting interest rates tend to be substantially higher than for conventional mortgages.

One key factor in determining what kind of loan a borrower gets is his credit score. Credit scores can run from 300 to 850, and many involved in the business view a credit score of 620 as a historic rough dividing line between borrowers who are unlikely to qualify for a conventional, or prime loan, and those who may be able to. Above that score, borrowers may qualify for a conventional loan if other considerations are in their favor. Above 720, most borrowers would expect to usually qualify for conventional loans, unless they are seeking to spend more than they can afford, or don't want to have to document their income or assets -- or are steered to a subprime product.

But rising home prices, and the growth of an industry of lenders specializing in subprime loans, led to an increase in all kinds of reasons for borrowers with good credit scores to sign up for subprime loans.

"Every single day ... I saw prime borrowers coming through my desk with 660, 680 [and] 720 credit scores," says Thomas Rudden, a former senior account executive at Mercantile Mortgage Co., a now-defunct subprime lender. Some were taking out loans as speculators, he believes, while in other cases he thinks brokers put borrowers into these loans because they thought it was easier.

Many borrowers figured they would refinance in a few years before the rate on their loan moved higher -- but falling home prices and tighter credit standards in the past year have suddenly made that unrealistic in many cases. "Brokers and agents were telling" borrowers with high credit scores for the past several years "that it was OK" to get subprime loans, "and borrowers were wanting to take on more debt," says Mark Carrington, director, analytical sales and support at First American LoanPerformance.

Confused Borrowers

A study done in 2004 and 2005 by the Federal Trade Commission found that many borrowers were confused by current mortgage cost disclosures and "did not understand important costs and terms of their own recently obtained mortgages. ⁽⁸⁾

Many had loans that were significantly more costly than they believed, or contained significant restrictions, such as prepayment penalties, of which they were unaware."

Lending advocates have long alleged that minority and poor borrowers are often steered into subprime loans that carry excessively high interest rates and steep prepayment penalties. But the growing use of subprime loans by people with higher credit scores suggests that such problems exist among a much wider swath of borrowers than previously thought and may have little to do with the ethnicity of borrowers.

Doug Duncan, chief economist of the Mortgage Bankers Association, says the line between borrowers who can qualify for a conventional loan and those who can't is blurry. "This perception that 620 is a break between prime and subprime ... is certainly not the view of the industry," he says.

Lenders make their decisions according to a variety of factors, including their own policies about risk, he says. Credit scores themselves are based on a variety of factors, including a consumer's payment history and debt load, how long the consumer has had credit, how actively the consumer is looking for new credit and the types of credit the consumer uses.

Lenders say they aren't responsible for borrowers who may have been reckless in their real-estate investments or their finances, or who have their own reasons for considering loans with subprime terms. "There are many borrower requests and situations, and multiple risk factors in addition to credit grading that go into loan underwriting decisions and often do result in borrowers with good credit grades accepting subprime loans," Countrywide Financial Corp. spokesman Rick Simon says.

Credit-worthy borrowers holding subprime loans may turn out to serve as a sort of shock absorber for the current mortgage crisis. They may be more likely than traditional subprime borrowers to withstand the double whammy of declining home prices and adjustable-rate mortgages soon due to reset at higher interest rates. The data perhaps explain why, so far, nearly 80% of the borrowers with subprime loans have continued to keep their loan payments current, according to some analysts.

That could indicate the crisis won't continue to deepen as much as some fear.

But the situation also means that many otherwise credit-worthy borrowers are stuck with subprime loans whose costs may rise, which could harm them financially and further tighten pressure on the U.S. economy. Delinquency rates for subprime loans have been climbing in part because many of these loans included risky attributes such as no documentation of the borrower's income or assets. Many were made to first-time home buyers or to speculators who planned to quickly flip the homes. An analysis by Fitch Ratings of 45 subprime loans that went delinquent early in their lives -- even though the borrowers had an average credit score of 686 -- concluded last week that "these loans suffered in many instances from poor lending decisions and misrepresentations by borrowers, brokers and other parties in the origination process."

During the housing boom, the lower introductory rate on adjustable-rate mortgages made them feel closer in cost to regular loans to many subprime borrowers, but those rates can jump after two or three years. Brokers had extra incentives to sell those loans, which have terms that often are confusing to borrowers. ⁽⁹⁾

For instance, according to a March 2007 "rate sheet" distributed by New Century Financial Corp., now in bankruptcy-court protection and no longer making subprime loans, brokers could earn a "yield spread premium" equal to 2% of the loan amount -- or $8,000 on a $400,000 loan -- if a borrower's interest rate was an extra 1.25 percentage points higher than the Irvine, Calif., lender's listed rates. ⁽¹⁰⁾

Borrowers weren't supposed to see the information. Tiny print at the bottom of the document warned: "For wholesale use only. Not for distribution to the general public."

On average, U.S. mortgage brokers collected 1.88% of the loan amount for originating a subprime loan, compared with 1.48% for conforming loans, according to Wholesale Access, a mortgage research firm. Payouts for subprime loans have traditionally been higher, in part because these loans sometimes took more work and the approval rate could be lower.

Brokers have sometimes used the money to help the borrower complete the loan, by reducing closing costs. But there is "a lot of play in the system," says A.W. Pickel III, a past president of the National Association of Mortgage Brokers, and president and chief executive of LeaderOne Financial Corp., a mortgage lender and broker in Overland Park, Kan. "You have to operate with an ethical basis." ⁽¹¹⁾

Critics claim that yield-spread premiums encourage brokers to steer borrowers into loans that cost far more than they should and create excessive financial risk. In October, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley filed a lawsuit against subprime lender Fremont Investment & Loan and its parent, Fremont General Corp., alleging that the payments were unfair and deceptive.

Fremont, which quit making subprime mortgages in March, denies any wrongdoing. In a court filing last month, the Brea, Calif., bank said that without access to its loans -- often requiring a lower standard of proof of income, assets and credit history than traditional lenders -- "many Massachusetts residents who are homeowners today would never have been able to purchase homes." Fremont declined to make additional comment.

In most states, mortgage brokers and loan officers aren't under any legal obligation to put borrowers in the mortgage that best suits them. A provision outlawing yield-spread premiums was dropped last month from a mortgage-reform bill now working its way through Congress.

'Duped Into Loans'

Tom Pool, an assistant commissioner for the California Department of Real Estate, says his office has seen a number of cases involving "totally ignorant and unsophisticated borrowers who had good credit, but were duped into loans they had no hope of repaying." But experienced borrowers with high credit scores are often too casual about the loan process.

A study published last year in the Journal of Consumer Affairs concluded that some borrowers pay higher rates than they should because they don't shop around enough. An earlier survey by the Mortgage Bankers Association of borrowers who had bought a house within the previous 12 months found that half couldn't recall the terms of their mortgage, says the association's Mr. Duncan.

Often such loans involve fraud, says Peter Fredman, a California attorney who has two clients who wound up with loans with high interest rates despite good credit scores. "Because these people had decent credit scores, the lenders said they would do a 100% no-documentation loan and that opened the door for mortgage brokers to do whatever they wanted to do," he says.

Mr. Fredman is representing a couple in their sixties with a monthly income of less than $2,500 but mortgage payments of roughly $3,400, not including taxes and insurance. The husband and wife, first-time home buyers with credit scores of 680 and 667, expected payments of $1,500 a month. They tried refinancing to lower the cost, to little effect. They haven't made a mortgage payment since January. ⁽¹²⁾