I agree with you Bugs; it’s been easy to lay the blame on loss of employment but there were many, many people who got in trouble with making payments that had exactly the same job as when they bought the hous. The trouble then, as it is now, is many paid too much for too little house, that had no appreciation and could not be rented out to cover costs. They did not want to wait, or could not afford to wait, the 10 years for the asset to start appreciating again. Negative cash flow is very hard on any investor. Me especially.
As Bugs wrote, it may or may not be a particular event that causes the change, merely critical mass being reached. We’ve reached far beyond critical mass (way further than I would EVER have guessed).