Several years ago, my husband and I toured homes during the Parade of Homes. We saw homes priced from $750,000 and up. At every home, as we exited, earnest and assertive mortgage sales people offered us an opportunity to "own" the home we had just toured by getting an interest-only, balloon-payment-in-five-years mortgage. My husband and I looked at each other and said, "That sounds risky," and went home to our much more modest house with a traditional mortgage.

I understand the importance of the U.S. government bailing out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. I recognize that there are many people currently struggling with difficult personal financial problems. I sympathize with the thousands of employees who have just lost their jobs at Lehman Brothers. I don't begin to understand the complexities of our economy, locally or globally. What I do know is that everyone is paying for those risky loans, even those who didn't think they were a good idea.

I wish a few more people had taken a good look at those too-good-to-be-true mortgages and said, "No thanks - we will live within our means."

Lisa Thompson

Sandy