While I do agree that the buyers are as much a part of the problem as the sellers I think that we do need to take into consideration the pressure that was put on buyers. You had brokers, mortgage brokers, the news, the Realtor Association, friends, etc. all pressuring people to buy. You were told by the main stream media that you could be priced out of the market forever…
Look I am not justifying any of this but if you are non real estate professional with friends who were all making money on RE it is very easy to understand how people made bad decisions. They were talked into complex loans where the supposide expert (aka Mortgage Broker) just fed them a line of bullshit that on face value they took for the truth. I didn’t buy a place until May of this year…but that’s because I work in RE and understood what was going on.
I understand why some of those completely underwater feel the way they do… Especially when they see the big banks getting bailed out and the execs still making millions.