The problems you cite were legitimate. All I was suggesting was that prices were still not artificially inflated because they are set by demand. You could say

The problems you cite were legitimate. All I was suggesting was that prices were still not artificially inflated because they are set by demand. You could say that unsustainable demand was generated by policy, but I don't think that's the same thing as artificial price inflation. People were legitimately willing to pay way too much for these (in my area at least) shoddy McMansions. And I'm not defending the sequence of inanities that led up to this whole debacle. Voted you up, too, because I think the conversation about renting versus interest is a good one. I sold my house about half a year before the collapse and have a sweet rental at the moment.