These are not, as far as I can tell, a response to the notion that everyone has suddenly tanked their credit because of the crisis. Rather, they seem to be pretty much entirely attempts to entangle people in rent-to-own schemes.
I don't know enough about rent-to-own to say whether it is ever, or never, a good idea. But it's pretty much never a good idea to apply for something like a lease that advertises no credit check. The adverse selection problem is enormous; the only people who apply are people with stunningly awful credit, or the very, very ignorant.
The supply of people with stunningly awful credit has probably gone up somewhat, but not enough to account for the explosion of no-credit-check ads, which seem to be about 20% of the total, at least in the price range that my housemate and I are shopping for. But the supply of unsellable houses has ballooned, even in the relatively insulated DC area.
This article available online at:
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2008/11/department-of-non-leading-indicators/4388/
