Well, the government bailed out the housing market. $5 trillion for Fannie and Freddie. However, what no one talks about is the whole system is subsidized - $60 billion/year for highways, $100 billion/year tax breaks, $450 billion for suburban subsidies, $871 billion/year for vehicle accidents, and $1 trillion/year for cheap oil. Home prices go up in prosperous times, so the idiot politicians said we just need to help home prices go up, confusing cause and effect, and the middle class buyers went along. It worked great until it didn't.