I don't think you understand my point. Housing should cost whatever supply and demand value it at. That means that when everything goes belly up because of stu

I don't think you understand my point. Housing should cost whatever supply and demand value it at. That means that when everything goes belly up because of stupid lending and stupid borrowing, those people should have to sell their homes at a loss and people should be able to come in and buy those now cheap (because of a new ratio of supply and demand) homes on the cheap. In other words, I want the natural value (free market) of things -- not some artificially inflated value, because government and committees felt obligated to bow to home-owners in saving their asses and maintaining the value of their assets. If I buy a car and then my financial situation changes, I may need to get rid of that car on the quick and someone can get a good deal out of it. Why should the government come in and rescue me by ensuring that I get a solid high value for my car, at the expense of another person who could have benefited from circumstances that otherwise would have made the car affordable to them? I know we don't tend to have a truly free market much of anywhere, but it seems particularly shitty to artificially maintain a high value in housing at the expense of a huge chunk of society that can't afford ridiculous (artificially so) housing prices.