Smaller banks with mostly residential or commercial real-estate loan books tend to take longer to work their way through problems.

WSJ: HEARD ON THE STREET: Banking Whales Leave Minnows Behind

Her goal: to pay down her mortgage and replace some of the income she lost when a real-estate loan she had made on another property recently went bad.

WSJ: Reverse Mortgages Now Look Cheaper

"The bank's capacity to generate profit enables us to set aside hefty real estate provisions in Spain in 2012 and significantly increase non-performing loan coverage, " Santander chairman Emilio Botin said.

BBC: Santander profits sink 90% on bad property loans

True, spending on new houses fell sharply again in July, but mortgage rates have been cut by the government's Housing Loan Corporation, and the government is considering reducing real-estate taxes and relaxing regulatory measures such as limits on the height of houses.

ECONOMIST: Japan: New tricks | The

The loan-to-value ratio of Zions' commercial real estate portfolio is low at 62%.

FORBES

For individuals looking to buy real estate, precious metals, or make other non-traditional investments, or seeking to secure a loan from their solo 401(k), an alternative option exists.

FORBES: Think About Going Solo In Your 401(k)

Goldman Sachs ( GS - news - people ), hardly known as an unsophisticated lender, has marked its commercial real estate loan portfolio down 30%.

FORBES: Companies, People, Ideas

The causes of 1990-91 and 2007-09 were similar: Real estate collapse, stock market turbulence, financial engineering turkeys come home to roost, loan failures, taxes going up, a Middle Eastern war, a spike in oil prices and everybody de-leveraging at once.

FORBES: Great Recession Did Not Have To Be Great