Hell, I saw it coming in 2005, when the “value” of my house had gone from $220,000 to $500,000 in three years, far more than I could afford to pay if I was buying it anew at my salary.
I put it on the market, in two weeks I got an offer at $480K, snapped it up. Lived in a rental for four years, then bought a lovely piece of semi-rural property where I live to this day.
I feel sorry for the poor saps who believed the myth that “housing will always go up” and bought overpriced housing or refinanced their family homes, using the proceeds to buy cars, boats, and vacations. But not a whole lot sorry. I’m no genius, and I managed to figure it out in time.
By 2007, everyone should have been wise to the con.
