Home prices put strain on buyers: Kirsten Keefe, the Albany-based executive director of Americans for Fairness in Lending, said it's unclear if people borrowed under exotic mortgages because rising housing costs left them no choice or if housing costs rose dramatically because such mortgages became widely available.

"It's the age-old chicken-or-the-egg question," she said.

But it's clear that home prices pinched many families, both locally and nationally, Keefe said.