Why did house prices go up so quick in the 90's and it seems now nobody can pay up anymore?

Question

it's funny how house prices don't drop significantly when nobody has a job anymore, someone has to live somewhere

Answer 1

Actually house prices appreciated the slowest rate since the 1930s in the 1990s.  It was the last 8 years that house prices went up so much.  In 1990 the median home price 120k.  In 1999 it was 134k.  now in 2008 median home price is 212k (although it was way higher in 2006)

part of the reason also is wages.  Wages have been the rising the slowest since the 1930s.  Usually every 10 years you can expect wages to jump 50 to 70% higher.  But since we started acquiring so much debt since the 1980s and outsourcing all our jobs to china/india...wages have not been going up so much.  For instance.  1940s wages rose 70%  1950s wages rose 70%, 1960s wages rose 70%.  1970s wages 108%...then 1980s 55% and 1990s 50%.  So far from 2000 to 2008 wages are only up 23%,

I also think one of the reason house prices are up so much is because of all these infomercials telling people they can flip houses and get rich quick, thats what happened the last few years too.  People spending 400k on a house that cost 140k 5 years earlier and then they think they will hold for 1 year and sell for 800k.  

But dont worry...everything eventually evens out and we are pretty close to the bottom now if we havent already hit it.