hello,
The real sick and twisted part of this mess. I wish i had the link. But i read a month ago. That the people who lose their homes. Then get the debt forgiven by the banks. Have the value of the forgiven debt considered income by the IRS . SO the get socked with 30,40 50 ..100 thousand dollar tax bills. Then they get stuck fighting the system.

State and federal governments .changed the rules to pressure lenders to lend to more people . The boom sent lots of money into coffers . Through income and property taxes. It wasn't just the lending institutions.

You can't blame people for getting trapped int the speculation game . Every finanical planning book for a while. Even now talks about investing in real estate or owning your own home ,as an investment.

I never got interested in real estate investing. Something about having to go 200k in debt to get 500 buck a month in residual income. Did not appeal to me.

Ken