Originally Posted by leiden

It doesn't really matter. People were all thinking they could flip houses and make money. The problem was few saw the decline coming and those that did didn't tell anyone.

But that's economics for you. Supply and demand. The DIYer's of America all thought that they could get a deal, make a bundle and move on. Or the person making $12 an hour thought he could afford a 500K house. Simple stupidity. People and banks were making loans based on monthly payments rather than debt to income ratios. So we screwed ourselves, and now we want to blame someone else. Typical.