I've known home owners who saw that the market was crashing in 2008/2009 and maxed out their existing lines of credit because they feared that the banks would freeze them.

In one of Malcolm Gladwell's books, he talked about that's how planes crash.

One "shouldn't" bet that this is a sure thing based on appreciation (look at the current housing crash).

Before the housing crash it was also the line for black and white in many neighboring cities on the north border.

For example, the Savings and Loan crash of the 1980s and the resulting Resolution Trust Corporation formed by the US government when it took over the assets.

In my mind, it only makes sense that the Fed is going to feel better and better about letting interest rates rise as job health is restored.I know many think that interest rates will rise based solely on the fact of the government printing money; however, that theory has been getting tossed around since the housing crash, and there has been very little inflation.

(We're not discussing seller financing, below market financing or assumable financing here, that's a whole another discussion vis-a-vis the relationship of value to below market financing.)What the Professor is saying is that real estate values have NOT increased in "real dollar", when you exclude inflation from that equation.Once upon a time, a long time ago in a distant land, the distance measured in a few miles, before the current real estate crash; I discovered several pockets of real estate that were somewhat isolated from market fluctuations in value.

Of course, at the time, no one new that a massive crash was around the corner - as obvious as it seems now.

You can also crash and burn a lot harder if you don't navigate the turns carefully.

I decided to do a short sale, which didn't work out because at this point the market is crashing.