Breakin' it down...

[Gagafritz]

Yeah, so what? I live here and it is paid for. If and when i move, i will sell for whatever the market value is.

 

[Gagafritz]

I don't understand the endless panic of one's home value. It is worth what it is worth. It doesn't matter what it is worth until you have to sell it.

 

[expat_panama]

Yeah, so what? I live here and it is paid for. If and when i move, i will sell for whatever the market value is.... ...I don't understand the endless panic of one's home value. It is worth what it is worth. It doesn't matter what it is worth until you have to sell it.

If you're not a PhD in economics then you'll do until a real econ PhD comes along. A home is a purchase and not an investment. People that say their home's their biggest 'investment' are really just saying they're too disorganized to save for the future.

 

[gallantwarrior]

The minute one simplifies the explanation of such a complex event such that everyone can "get it"?

One loses the details that actually are necessary to "get it".

Here's two books I've read in hopes of understanding what happened.

Amazon.com: Real Estate Bubble - Joseph E. Stiglitz: Books


BARNES & NOBLE | The Great Unraveling: Losing Our Way in the New Century by Paul Krugman, Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc. | NOOK Book (eBook), Paperback, Hardcover, Audiobook

Having read these books, I think I have a thumbnail sketch of the problems and events that lead up to the RE meltdown and the ensuing DEBT crises that it caused, too.

But note that even after reading these two economists' tomes on this subject, I think I merely have a clue about how it happened.

If there's a problem here for some people to watch a very simplified cartoon explanation, I think you are asking way too much when you suggest they actually crack open a book and read about it!