Americans shopping for houses must take care they don't get financially trapped by subprime mortgages, says real estate lawyer Shari Olefson, director of The Carnegie Group.

"Consumers need to keep themselves educated. Primarily, that's going to be our best defense,'' Olefson said Thursday on "The Steve Malzberg Show" on Newsmax TV.

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"The problem we are seeing now is a reemergence of these new subprime mortgage products.

"Someone who wants to buy a home at the end of the day is not going to not buy a home because they can't get an FHA loan or a qualified mortgage. They are going to fall to these subprime loans again.''

Subprime mortgages were blamed, in part, for the housing collapse that gripped the nation in 2006 and 2007.

Olefson is author of "Financial Fresh Start: Your Five-Step Plan for Adapting and Prospering in the New Economy," published by AMACOM, and "Foreclosure Nation," published by Prometheus Books.

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