Yes, 10x more flippers = 10x the existing demand from flippers but it would also = 10x the existing supply from the flippers too. Flippers do not buy houses and destroy them. They either fix it up or just put it right back on the market.

You forget that loose lending also allow people who shouldn’t be buying houses at all to buy. Those are demand that wouldn’t have existed. Renters buying starter houses, people who would have bought starter houses buy move up houses, etc. It just add a lot more demand out there. Supply is fixed except for new construction. Once again, I don’t see flipper removing supply, they just change the type of supply but the house doesn’t go anywhere.

Of course speculation and easy money are linked, but I say easy money allow people to speculate, not the other way around. So, the root cause is not speculation, the root cause is easy money. This all comes back to your statement:

[quote=CA renter]
Though some of us think flipping is a big part of the problem, it doesn’t mean we’re not informed.[/quote]

You can’t lay food in front of hungry people and tell them they can’t eat. Human are greedy creature. It’s just the way it is. That’s why communism doesn’t work even though it’s perfect idealistically. Flipping doesn’t cause the bubble, easy money did. You just said so yourself, easy money is now starting again and you’re expecting speculators to increase. Which mean speculation was there when easy money wasn’t there.