re: #148 Wendell Zurkowitz (slave to the waffle light)

The limiting factor on the housing market was not so much the availability of houses as the availability of mortgage loans. The sub-prime boom let to a glut of mortgage loans being offered.

Remember all the spam that used to get sent out until 2008 for “low-cost mortgage loans”? Just tell us how much you need and how much you can afford to pay and we’ll work something out for you!

When I bought my house the neighborhood was blue collar, Next door neighbors were sheet metal workers. One of their boys married a girl whose family owned one of those home equity loan business. They took out loans for boats and new pick up trucks to haul them. Then bigger boats and bigger trucks. RV’s, ATV’s. Their toys became a problem by taking up all the street parking. They lost their house about 4 years before the meltdown. the only thing the kept was the RV which they moved into. Very sad.