Home ownership includes many risks and expenses. Values are just one aspect. With home ownership comes many costs and question marks such as insurance (flood, hazard, fire, etc.), maintenance costs, interest, taxes, and appreciation or depreciation. Plus the whole liquidity issue that it may take you a while to sell your home if you need to get out of it.

Nobody is forcing anyone to blindly buy property, use their homes equity as an ATM machine, buy more house than they can afford, or get ARM mortgages. The people who choose to do these things are really the ones to blame.

Just curious, but how can you expect a bank to eat the costs if there is a decline in your homes value, but not have any cut of future profits?