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Americans overwhelmingly believe the U.S. Congress should not bail out the nation's financial markets from the subprime loan crisis, which is spreading into the conventional mortgage markets, according to a new poll conducted by Housing Predictor.

The online survey overwhelmingly showed respondents do not want the government to get involved in the hedge fund debacle, which is reported to run into billions of dollars in losses for investors, Wall Street investment houses and home owners under going foreclosure.

Eighty-one percent said they did not want the government to bail out investment houses or get involved in the crisis. Only 19 percent said they wanted Congress to bail the hedge funds out of trouble. The online survey was conducted over a 30 day period.

U.S. tax payers paid billions of dollars in additional taxes to bail out the savings and loans in the 1990's when the U.S. Savings and Loan Fraud scandal occurred, which was the largest white collar scandal in the nation's history. It cost every man, woman and child an estimated $10,000 at the time.

Foreclosures are at near record levels in many real estate markets throughout the nation as a result of the subprime crisis. Investment hedge funds provided funding for mortgages to borrowers with damaged credit, making them at a higher risk for foreclosure. As interest rates adjusted on many mortgages an increasing number of subprime borrowers either could not afford higher payments or were discouraged enough to walk from their mortgages all together due to a slow down in the housing market.

The subprime crisis was mainly contained to lower and middle class neighborhoods in urban centers, not affecting a larger majority of the nation's real estate markets, but a Housing Predictor study in April showed the crisis had crept into conventional lending markets. However, second home and vacation markets are immune from the crisis, and purchasers of higher priced real estate rarely attempt to obtain mortgages through the subprime market.

Housing Predictor regularly surveys visitors on real estate related issues through its Predictor Poll on the web site, which forecasts more than 250 local housing markets in all 50 U.S. states.