回复：回复：Your logic is not convincing enough :-)

You said:

"what else could be the reason which pushed housing price so high over the last five years? You think people get a while lot richers in five years by salary and/or so-called investment? forget it."

My comment on this is: From 1990 to 1998, housing price was depressed for 8 years while inflation has raised people's income. Relative to housing, at around 1998, housing did look very cheap and affordable. In relative terms, people in 1998 was indeed a lot richer in terms of buying power than they are today in 2007. Easy credit was a helping factor, but not a dominating cause. Back in 1998 to 2000 period, even without the helping factor, I bet the housing market was ready for a boom due to this high buying power and relative cheap housing price ratio.

I agree that the housing market seems to have a regulating valve, able to detect its tolerance, will reset itself in time to avoid overheating.

Afterall, if late 80s' economy didn't slow down, job didn't disappear, I bet the price might went on a little bit more, but eventually will hit a speed bump like we are hitting today. Therefore, it's very possible that the speed bump from self-regulating mechanism had never been hit in previous cycles. Instead, a job loss always happened slightly early enough to act as a cause.

I am sorry I may have confused you. If you don't understand my logic, it's fine. We skip it :-)