We have  the worst housing crisis I've ever seen.  

Originally posted by @Jason Branch:Believe it of not im thinking of taking the other route now and starting real estate, im not old but not young at 33, thinking of stock piling now and start with a cheap house I have a degree in International Studies and always wanted to work as a diplomat or for an intelligence agency.

It used to work pretty well but since the housing crisis, not so much.

Were short sales a thing before the housing crisis?  

The agent I talked to seems to always give diplomatic answers...

These are the guys who can negotiate loan workouts, bring in additional equity partners in order to buy their own debt at a discount during a financial crisis and more or less live in their own world.

If someone works 10 hours a week but then that is deducted off of assistance then they essentially worked for free and could have stayed home and done nothing and collected the same amount.That is what is wrong with the system is that it does not promote effectively weaning people off of the system and leaving only people who need it in a time of crisis getting through a legitimate hardship.

Crisis and upheaval can bring better opportunity than a gold rush.

Here's an excellent article that discusses why real estate prices are headed lower: http://www.zerohedge.com/article/next-leg-housing-crisis-five-simple-charts While this article presents 5 very good reasons that real estate prices are going down, it omits the BIGGEST REASON, which is that the federal government is INSOLVENT!

The debt has made it more difficulty for me to obtain financing in my endeavors (of course I happened to become an entrepreneur right when the credit crisis hit), but ultimately I think I will come out for the better, especially being able to survive the downturn.I am a little bitter towards the higher education industry for taking advantage of my parent's never having had a college degree rationalizing to them that debt was an acceptable and normal way to pay for higher education for your children.