Today's mortgage market offers a broad spectrum of loan products, ranging from prime loans for borrowers with indisputably solid credit histories, on one end, to what have come to be known as  1/4  predatory loans, on the other.
In between are a variety of higher-cost loans for borrowers who have impaired credit ratings, high debt-to-income ratios, high loan-to-value ratios, or some other risk characteristic for which lenders may legitimately charge a higher rate as protection against default. But it is the abusive end of the spectrum that has drawn so much attention and generated the discussion about discrimination in pricing and terms.