OK, the lesson for today is buying a house and trying not to bring down the US economy. This message is for prospective house buyers. When you are looking to buy a house you have to consider many factors (financial and otherwise), some of them are:
Do I have enough money for a down payment?
What interest rate can I get on my mortgage?
Can I afford to pay my mortgage, property tax, routine maintenance, etc...?
How long will I live here?
Do I like the neighborhood?
Is this house worth the cost?
Can I afford to eat if I buy this house?
And there are many more questions. But the key point is this -> If you can only afford a house via an interest only loan, don't buy it <- Right now we are seeing lots of defaults because sub prime lenders let people borrow money to buy houses with and a significant percentage are defaulting on the loans. And as we are seeing now this is bad for the overall economy. So to restate the obvious you should do a gut check to see if you can really afford the place you are buying. If you're not sure then don't do it. A bad experience will hurt you, the lender, and the economy in general.