Vertigo, you are sorely mistaken, it was all those speculators, realtors, and lenders that caused this mess, as well as some unscrupulous appraisers…I used to be an appraiser, but thankfully I was not involved in single family houses. For you too think that any commodity of any kind can increase in value by the amount that housing did in the 2001-2005 period is just kidding yourself. We are not vultures, we are realists who know that the only true value of anything is what someone else would pay you for it. We just foresaw that the prices were too high to justify the cost, and I myself would not pay 3/4 of a million dollars for the “priviledge” of being strapped to an upside-down mortgage with no spendable income because more than 50% of our income would go to a mortgage payment, not to mention the taxes and insurance, etc. My kids don’t care if we own or rent, but that they can play baseball, soccer, go to the movies, and enjoy life, all because we rent and are not house-poor. We will eventually buy, but I for one think you are the sick one for thinking we are happy about other people’s misery due to their own ignorance.
