What Could Go Wrong This Time?

“Can’t Afford a House? Don’t Buy One,” Megan McArdle writes at Bloomberg View:

When legislators and activists say that we need low-down-payment loans because most people couldn’t possibly save up for a 20 percent down payment, what they’re really saying is that people can’t actually afford to buy a house. Helping them to go buy one anyway is not a great idea; it will work out well for some, to be sure, but it will have tragic consequences for others, and for the housing market as a whole if there’s another downturn. We just spent six years learning, the very hard way, that you can’t borrow yourself rich. That knowledge is too expensive to throw away so easily.

Here’s a fun-filled reminder of who caused the last housing bubble and thrill-packed roller-coaster ride America went on in the fall of 2008 when it burst:

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