my parents bought a new 4/3 tract house in the santa clarita valley (castaic, specifically) around ’90. market bust almost as soon as we moved in. but it really didn’t bother us much; they were always compaining about “the economy” for as long as i can remember, my mother regretted, fretted and whined alot, but that’s mostly it. we survived. they still own the house.

funny thing, i discussed this current boom/bust with them at a family get together and they said “houses always go up”. they completely forgot about the 90’s.

thing is, even at the height of that boom, the house was still affordable. overpriced, maybe, but affordable to middle-middle class self employed small business owning single wage 2 kids + dog. you can’t say the same thing today.