It didn't all work out for many: when real estate crashed in 2008 a lot of people lost everything: they had huge negative equity in a house that was suddenly wo

It didn't all work out for many: when real estate crashed in 2008 a lot of people lost everything: they had huge negative equity in a house that was suddenly worth 20% or more less than what they paid with 5% or less down payment, lost the house and their savings and wound up bankrupt, at a time when the economy was tanking so many lost their jobs as well. Many people had invested their retirement savings in bonds based on all these crappy loans, thinking that this was a conservative investment (real estate! Only ever goes up!).