In the wake of the recent sub-prime mortgage scandal, everyone is understandably nervous about repeating the past. Recent data indicates that, in fact, sub-prime lending is up significantly (20.4% for HELOCs, 29.5% for home-equity loans, and 30.5% for first mortgages). However, it seems unlikely that there’s cause for concern. Although those percentage increases are large, the number of overall sub-prime loans is very small. Only 146,000 of the 3.3 million mortgages year-to-date were issued to borrowers with a credit score below 620.