This maybe speaks to OP's point. I don't want to weigh in on whether they overextended themselves or not. 2008-2009 were rough years, and financial situations

This maybe speaks to OP's point. I don't want to weigh in on whether they overextended themselves or not. 2008-2009 were rough years, and financial situations that didn't work out during that period would probably have been fine any other time. Also, let's cut some slack and presume that they were doing the best they could with a difficult set of circumstances. With that out of the way, I think it bears mentioning that, while it isn't illegal to encourage people to overextend themselves, that's what everyone related to the housing industry seems to be doing. Realtors don't want you to be conservative with your money because they earn a percentage of how much you spend. Bankers don't (or didn't) because they don't (or didn't) give a rat what your chances of covering the mortgage are -- they just needed you to be able to make payments long enough for them to sell the loan to Fannie or Freddie or whoever. There are all sorts of do-gooders who have decided that homeownership is not a mark of prosperity, it's actually the path to it, and consequently have (or had) a tendency to get a bit too cheerleader-y. Even other homeowners, the victims of the housing boondoggle if ever there were any, are a part of it, because thinking of your house as an investment goes hand-in-hand with believing that of course home prices should be taking a one-way trip to the moon. (Tangentially, that last aspect has me starting to suspect that the house and condo market is something of a Ponzi scheme that we are collectively pulling on ourselves.) I don't know where I'm going with this, so I guess I'll throw one last thought out: The contrast does seem pretty stark to me. The rich are getting justice, and everyone else gets victim blaming.