seventh circle of hell

hello, everyone,

In reading an article from Washington Post (URL http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/27/AR2007072701693.html), I came across with this expression as in the title "seventh circle of (real estate) hell".  Could anybody explain simply what this stands for? 

Through web search I found the expression derives from Dante's Inferno recounting a tour of nine hells.  Seventh is about violence Wiki says under The Divine Comedy but it doesn't still sound right to me.  How does the misguided subprime scheme represent 'violence'?  Any other source so far looked did not help at all understand this sentence.

Here's a quote from the article, bit long, sorry: ''Another Irvine-based operation, Irvine Housing Blog, brilliantly drives home the same point with daily dispatches about the seventh circle of real estate hell: people who buy houses on spec with no money down. A typical entry chronicles the purchase price, tracks down the amount of debt on the property and then calculates how much each party -- the buyer, the first mortgage holder, the second mortgage holder -- stands to lose, assuming the seller receives the asking price. My favorite thus far is the house for which somebody paid $1.29 million in May 2006, putting down only $91,000 in cash. Today it's listed for $850,000, a whopping 34 percent reduction in about a year.''

Thanks in advance

Souroin

Hello Vorpar,

Thank you for your comment.  As you pointed out, it seems rather ninth would be suitable if the phrase was meant something other than just an exaggeration.  It's interesting to find many other expressions using the numerals from first to ninth when I looked through internet.  Seven could be the most common among them, then?  

I am dare to say but according to your comment, you are obviously one knew this but, not so many people apparently know where the expression actually came from, or they simply don't care... or for worst I just got a wrong source of reference...  It's common things in my language, too, though - some words and phrases deviate from what appear to be the original meaning.

Thanks again.

Warm regards,

Souroin