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[Joe Stocks]

The chart also seems to imply that we haven't seen noth'in yet! Good point you make. However, one has to stand back in awe and wonder what everyone was thinking when the made all those sub-prime loans that get reset over the next two years.

>>Standard & Poor's estimates that the Alt. A market has gone from less than $20 billion in loans in the fourth quarter of 2003 to more than $100 billion in each of the last three quarters. Overall, new Alt. A loans totaled $386 billion in 2006, according S&P's estimates - up 28 percent from 2005.

By comparison, subprime loans reached $640 billion in 2006, according to trade publication Inside Mortgage Finance, though that was down about 4 percent from the record level reached in 2005.

"Much of the growth of the last few years has come from reaching out beyond where the lenders should have reached out," said Guy Cecala, publisher of the trade publication. "It wasn't normal business that walked through their door. All was based on the idea that home price appreciation would cover over a lot of the problems that occurred. But that hasn't happened."

But just as the Alt. A market has grown even faster than subprime, some believe it could shrink even faster amid growing concerns in the marketplace. That means another pool of money that has supported home sales and housing prices being yanked just as home sales and prices are already in decline.<<

http://money.cnn.com/2007/03/19/news/economy/next_subprime/?postversion=2007031913