Couple that with the mortgage crisis, and 2008 was pretty bad.Most economists don't think that 2008 was the downturn of the long-term debt cycle...which is scary...because that means that this one is still coming, likely in the next decade or two, if not sooner. 

This whole story worked itself out between 2006 when I got my license and late 2008 when the mortgage Crisis took place.Part of what introduced me to so many interesting people was I was working foreclosures primarily.

I agree with @Nathan Gesner that the migrant issue is fueling the fire on the affordable housing crisis, more people needing them has to drive scarcity. 

But really pushed my chips in during the crisis.

This is why sometimes rents can actually increase in an economic crisis .

This crisis affects industries differently.

My father took out a second mortgage on our primary home before the financial crisis ( not sure why, I was only 13 years old at the time) fast forward today, he is looking to refinance our home but we were told our monthly payments would go from 2750 to 2450 but he has to pay the second mortgage which has a balance of 38,000.

I'm truly interested in your perspective.Sacramento is experiencing a crisis of rental housing because there are more people moving here than are leaving.

Note the the MF market hasn't seen all the crazy mortgage products that created the single family mortgage crisis.2.

Then the S&L bubble burst and he ended up like so many were in the 2008-2012 period when the mortgage crisis hit.If someone crashed and burnt during the 1980s over commercial real estate, then they were simply over leveraged and bought bad assets.