Every time I write a piece about first-time home buyers, I'll meet one who is a little older than the rest -- late 30s or early 40s.

The subject is usually an affluent professional, well-educated and long overdue to be a homeowner. The question I always ask is why the person waited so long to buy.

The usual answer: "I didn't think I'd qualify for a mortgage."

There is absolutely no reason why the vast majority of these older first-timers wouldn't qualify for a mortgage. They pass the income requirements. In most cases, the houses they are buying are well within their means. While they aren't wealthy, most are able to put down 20 percent and pay all closing and other costs out of pocket.

The reason why they believe they don't qualify for a mortgage is that they are too skittish about making the first move and starting to ask questions. Most are not comfortable sharing financial data with perfect strangers, and believe that they don't possess the knowledge that will keep them from being scammed by unscrupulous lenders.

These are the people who are willing to go with lenders suggested by their agents instead of shopping around for the best deal.

While the Internet has given them some courage, these folks remain skittish about providing more than vague answers to questions electronically, and justifiably so, since identity theft is an increasing problem. Even if most of the financial transaction is conducted on the Internet, buyers still demand a face to face meeting with the lender.

The question is, of course, how real are their fears?

An answer was provided recently by the Joint Center for Housing at Harvard, which released a study linking the rise in foreclosures to the complexity of today's mortgage market.

Even though our society supposedly values consumer choice, Nicolas P. Retsinas, the director of the joint center, said that "the ability of consumers to make informed choices about complex mortgage products is limited."

The situation facing consumers is made even more difficult, he said, "by the widespread use of targeted incentives that encourage some mortgage brokers and loan officers to aggressively market confusing, and often more costly, subprime products to less than knowledgeable and often desperate borrowers."

Taken at face value, the report by the two Harvard researchers seems to give credence to buyers' fears that the mortgage process is designed to overwhelm them.

The research recommends new forms of point-of-sale consumer assistance to "enhance the ability of consumers to obtain manageable and fairly priced loans."

These initiatives include new telephone and on-line counseling services, where counselors are armed with the information needed to help consumers push back against today's aggressive push-marketing activity.

In addition, the research suggests actions that the mortgage industry could take to effectively sanction mortgage market participants who exploit those consumers unable to fend for themselves.

While the joint center research suggests that consumers need more information to make educated, and, therefore, safer decisions about mortgage choices, the Federal Trade Commission is about to come out with the study saying that buyers are being provided with too much data.

In anticipation of that study, the National Association of Mortgage Brokers is urging changes in current mortgage disclosure forms.

The issue centers on a secondary market fee called the yield spread premium, or YSP, which mortgage brokers are required to disclose in closing documents.

All other loan originators receive a comparable secondary market fee that is not disclosed to consumers.

The FTC's report says that consumers do benefit from clearly presented information, but that the disclosure of complex transactions, such as YSP, may confuse homebuyers and lead to poor financial judgment.

"While we believe it is essential to share as much information as possible with homebuyers, most consumers suffer from information overload and are really only interested in the bottom line," said association president Harry Dinham.

The mortgage brokers' group has already proposed a revised good-faith estimate that focuses on the loan amount, interest rate, monthly payment including insurance and tax, and the amount needed at closing, as well as disclosures to help consumers avoid "payment shock" on adjustable rate mortgages.

I don't have any figures on it, but I think it would be safe to say that most Americans probably have trouble balancing a checkbook. I know that most prospective home buyers can't understand the overwhelming importance of a good credit record to mortgage approval.

Is it any wonder, then, why mortgage lending might be more than a just a little intimidating even to people whose financial credentials are in order?