If the housing bubble had burst just one year later, a plausible narrative would be how the economy was fine until Obama screwed everything up.
Remember under George Bush when The GOPee had control of both legislative houses plus the white house? Yep another lack luster time of majority for the GOPee. Instead of working on reversing bad economics that led up to the housing finance crisis, they gave us Medicare D. So yeah, the GOP in a roundabout way can share the blame.
It bust after the Democrats took over Congress in 2006.