How much should you pay for a dream?

Stuart Cohn can't afford to go to a court of law. So let's convene for him the court of public opinion.

You be the judge.

I expect your verdict will say something about the economic mess we're in. Because Cohn's case brings up central, unresolved questions about our real-estate meltdown. Who's responsible? Who should pay?

Flash back to late 2006. Cohn, a data specialist at Swedish Medical Center, was 45. After years of being disabled and poor, he'd gone back to work and started saving.

He plunked it all down on a promise.

"I fell for a dream," he says.

One day he went into Vulcan's Discovery Center, a high-tech condo-sales office in South Lake Union. Back then it swarmed with so many buyers they held lotteries to see who could buy a condo.

Cohn watched promotional movies. Played with an interactive model of the neighborhood. And, most problematically for him, sat down at a desk staffed by Countrywide Home Loans.

Countrywide was Vulcan's preferred lender. Meaning Countrywide paid Vulcan to set up a one-stop-loan-shopping desk at the Discovery Center.

You may also have heard of Countrywide because they just agreed to pay the largest predatory lending settlement in U.S. history — $8.6 billion. Eleven states, including Washington, sued Countrywide for pushing risky loans on people who couldn't afford them.

People a lot like Stuart Cohn.

He's no high roller. He's so careful — usually — that his credit score tops 800. That puts him among the top 5 percent most creditworthy people in America. Though he makes only $46,000.

No problem, Countrywide told him. He could buy a condo at Veer Lofts for $276,000, and Countrywide would lend him $262,000. All he had to do was put down $14,000 in cash. His life savings. Which he did.

Cohn still has the deal Countrywide printed out for him.

"The presenter of this Approved Homebuyer Certificate has been approved for a Countrywide home loan and brings with them the instant credibility of a serious homebuyer," it reads. It details the terms of the loan he would get.

The catch is that Cohn's condo didn't exist yet. He watched with excitement as Vulcan built it. Until last summer, 2008, when Countrywide — mired in a toxic mess of bad loans and foreclosures — all but collapsed. It was bought by Bank of America.

Sorry, Countrywide then told Cohn. We can't give you that loan anymore.

He's got the same job, with a slightly higher salary. Yet today he can't get any loan. The reality is that his condo would eat up a bit more than half his take-home pay, considered A-OK in the go-go days of 2006 but unacceptable today.

And now Vulcan — technically the Veer Lofts Venture LLC — won't give him his $14,000 deposit back.

In letters to the state, which tried to mediate this dispute, both Countrywide and Vulcan said tough luck. Times change. If you can't get a loan then you've defaulted.

Both also suggested Cohn's issue is with the other.

"It's not the developer who determines who gets a loan," said David Postman, spokesman for Vulcan.

Countrywide wrote: "Countrywide has no affiliation with the seller (Vulcan) and cannot be responsible for their actions."

This is a stretch, to say the least. Countrywide was operating out of a desk in Vulcan's office — in fact had entered into a paid marketing agreement with Vulcan for the privilege of being there. Still today, Vulcan dedicates a page at the Veer Lofts Web site steering customers to Countrywide.

For his part, Cohn, now broke, admits he tried to buy more than he could afford.

"I'm angry at myself, for allowing myself to go too far, to get caught up in all this," Cohn said. "But I also think the way lending was done was so loose it's scandalous."

Vulcan can't discuss individual cases, Postman said. But he said tough situations like this have become common in Seattle.

"We have lots of buyers who have had financing dry up on them, and we also have buyers who are trying to get out of their contracts because they feel they paid too much," he said. "We try very hard to work with them. But we can't make a bank lend anyone money."

That is true. So, you be the judge. What should happen to the $14,000? Write your proposed solution to me, or put it in comments on our Web site.

It's like our housing meltdown in microcosm. Who's to blame — the people with stars in their eyes who took on too much debt? Or the companies that made it all so easy for them? Who deserves a bailout, if anyone?

I would give Cohn back at least some of the money. Countrywide was irresponsible. And Vulcan bears some blame because Countrywide was by all appearances its partner.

Cohn is also to blame. Unlike the others, though, he cops to it. That is so refreshing, not to mention necessary, as we dig ourselves out of this mess, that I'm going to give him the last word.

"Put me in there as a cautionary tale," he said. "Tell people: Don't do what I did. Don't buy too much. Don't ever buy one of these 'pre-sale' units. By the time it's built the world can change completely.

"And the thing is, everyone can back out but you."

Danny Westneat's column appears Wednesday and Sunday. Reach him at 206-464-2086 or dwestneat@seattletimes.com.