There is another factor that no one has touched upon. I am a Plumber and I have spent many years earning a reputation amongst the local builders and plumbing inspectors as being a stickler for detail, to the point that often an inspector comes on the job site and when he or she sees me standing there they barely go through the motions of an inspection, relying upon the fact that they know my work. In return, I can command top money amongst the builders and I am still in high demand because they know that I will get the job done on time, in budget and have no follow-up problems. Along comes Mr & Mrs gotlotz acting in the stead of a competent GC and they immediately begin giving me attitude. NO problem. The first thing out of their mouth is that they will not settle for the quality of work we do on tract homes. Fine with me, never let it be said that I cheated you out of your bragging rights, I just add an additional 10 or 15% aggravation fee for putting up with the attitude. The quality of the work speaks for itself.

I was thinking about my former garage (now my den). My DH was a GC. He'd clean out his truck by putting everything into Hefty bags and first, putting them in the garage. Right in front of the door. So, the garage was kind of empty, but you couldn't get in. Then he just left them in driveway. Thank goodness our home is in the country and no one could see. I hated it, but didn't know what the stuff was to clear it out or save. For 3 years I lived in a home damaged by fire and subsequent rebuilding plans. No electricity, plumbing, windows, heat, kitchen, 1 toilet (I begged to have hooked up), and finally a shower. I lived in 1 room with 7 cats and 4 dogs, waiting for him to get thru depression, work exhaustion, God knows what. Turns out "what" was an affair and the rebuilding he was doing on the house and come to a grinding halt because he was "busy". Not working for a year, but during patience and understanding, I didn't know that. We split up and those bags became a blessing. Lots was rusted or ruined, but I was able to exchange anything with a bar code to Lowe's and HD. Probably well over $4500's worth of stuff I exchanged for electrical wire, plumbing stuff, additional drywall materials, roof tar paper, flashing, (stop me) if you can think of something you'd use to build a house, insert it here. Because I had materials in those bags, I was able to get electricity in all but 2 rooms, a donated vanity sink installed, drywall materials (still LOTS of this to do), things built, some plumbing installed, and amazing stuff done. Without buying much at all! Some projects required NO material money whatsoever. I had 43 electrical outlet/switch boxes and the outlets and switches to go with them! When I can get the money together to hire someone, even they started to ask where I had this tool, this gadget, this plumbing part, this electrical box, that wood, this type screw, that drill and this bit, (stop me again) vs. immediately thinking they were going to get an hour break to go to Lowe's or HD. Saved me TONS and TONS in time, money, frustration, and got rid of much of the Hefty bags. Let me sing that song again: It also got rid of the bags. I decided to teach myself how to build cabinets (no kitchen) since I had all this material in the garage and barn. Well, one little class at a woodworking club showed me many of those weird tool things I had were something I could use!!! Glad I didn't clear out everything in a grief/depression/frustration-purge. Turns out when he couldn't find something, he just bought another. I actually had MORE tools than the workshop! So purging by returning. Purging by installing. Purging by building. And not purging something I didn't understand has held me in good stead! I admit to giving away an entire lathe system and an evil radial arm saw. Afraid of that baby! But I know people who take this stuff can USE it. I purge frequently and actually don't have stuff like I used to. I just have no place to put things yet (haven't built closets) so my life is in those Sterlite boxes stacked in different rooms. Slowly but surely, they're either given away or I finish a cabinet. One project at a time, even if it's winding the cord up on the vacuum cleaner.

Berniek is right: Much of the blame here falls upon the shoulders of the politicians (led by then-President Clinton), who forced banks to begin some rather foolish lending practices. Alan Greenspan certainly did his share to push this concept of "everyone can borrow" during his time as Fed chairman. Between creative financing, no money down offers, and other such options, the government has given people plenty of rope with which to hang themselves. We Americans haven't proven ourselves to be particularly strong in the moderation and self-discipline categories over the last 30-40 years. Also, remember the climate that existed in the 90s, when I bought my first house: Spurred on by the soaring housing prices, people were convinced that buying "as much house as you can afford" was a good move. Housing was considered an investment that couldn't fail. Yes, the experts began preaching about "the housing bubble" long before it hit, but the masses couldn't grasp how this sure-thing could ever fall. And there's always been a (faulty) basic belief that "If I couldn't afford it, the bank wouldn't lend it to me." I fully agree with those who say that Real Estate agents will push buyers to their upper limits and beyond, and banks will lend what they can -- it's all about profits for them. Yet, the home owner DOES also bear the brunt of personal responsibility. After all, who cares most about whether I can afford my mortgage -- and still buy groceries and other things I need? Clearly, it's ME! I reap the rewards or punishments of my decisions, so I should do the math and know whether I can comfortably afford a house (or anything else) before I buy it. However, we've sort of left that thinking behind in today's buy-now-pay-later society. We're constantly told that "we deserve" this or that thing. That if we're going to finance it, we deserve to have exactly what we want. That "everyone" has debt. We've got to get past that.

To give a buyer's perspective, my husband and I have been trying to buy a house for weeks. It's an older house and needs some updates, we figured we might be in a higher insurance pool while we get the electrical up to modern code. We found insurance, but we can't get a loan. As soon as the banks saw that there were closing concessions to cover upgrades they demanded all notes and insisted that all fixes (including some really trivial ones) be completed weeks before closing. We've tried offering to put money in escrow and agreeing to do the fixes within 30 days - no dice. Our realtor is floored - lots of houses in this area have older systems and it's never been a problem. We're now exploring voiding the old contract and writing a new one without any concessions so we can start again. It's a collective action problem - the banks are terrified that they'll have a hard time selling a house if the deal sours. As soon as one bank says they won't underwrite a house with older (but still safe) systems, none of them will because they will run into the same problem with buyers if they try to sell. For the record, this house has systems that are normal for the area, but something has shifted for the banks in the last few months. We have been approved as buyers for more than this house costs, it's been appraised at a higher price than we're paying, but the banks are just gun-shy about any hint of trouble. We plan to do the updates as soon as we close, we just want it out of the way, but the banks won't consider an escrow and timeline. We want to buy, the seller wants to sell, the banks want to loan money to us, they just have become really picky about the houses.