Buyers **chose** to overpay. This cannot be emphasized enough. The fact that they had the govt and the REIC pumping them full of BS certainly added to the problem, but people like myself (not to mention the tireless bloggers like Rich who were putting in lots of time and effort for free) were trying to **warn** others about the bubble.
ALmost my exact senario except I am not a chick and not married. I was divorced and chose not to over pay.
But alas…..I love paying for others mortgage through my taxs….it gives me that oh so helpful feeling…………………..(pukeing)