I think you are right. There are people who had money and could not pull the trigger. They missed the run up. You could say it was a speculators market so even if you didn’t have money you could have fudged the paperwork and you would have participated in the run up.
But I think there are enough people who just didn’t have the money or jobs to be able to comfortably think about buying. At some point it just was not prudent.
My father is routinely late to the game. He loves to buy high and sell low. He was all over me to buy in 2004. By this point I had a decison to make. I could have afforded a place but I just couldn’t see how it made sense realative to what I was paying to rent. I also looked at what people earn in San Diego and could not see how alll these homes were being bought. I chose to sit on the sidelines.
So did I miss the boat. You have to know when it is going to take off to actually miss it. By this, one has to have a conscious decision.
If a real estate bubble presents itself again and I choose not to particiapte I would agree with you that I missed the boat.
