HereWeGo, I agree with you. But do you think that people who wrote a check for $700,000 for an ordinary middle-class home are not also fully responsible?
I think there was a very widespread readiness to borrow, with almost no commitment to repaying, unless repaying was painless because the house price went up. House prices were in Monopoly Money. Everything else was in real money. I knew many people who thought nothing of adding another few hundred thousand dollars to their house price budget, and then would buy cheaper ice cream to save $0.75. That’s because they never planned to repay the loan from their income. I think our problem isn’t fixed until that mindset changes. Many economists, regulators, politicians, and ordinary people still haven’t come to terms with the fundamental, painful, truth: House prices aren’t right-sized until almost all buyers can actually pay off the loan out of their income.
