I'm not particularly literate on the subject of real estate and bubbles bursting--but I did live in Texas in the late eighties and watched many things crash. I lost a little on a house there.... Only then (eighties), there wasn't the buildup of credit card debt to contend with...it used to be hard to get credit cards, and the credit limits to those cards was low. People have gotten in the bad habit of cashing out equity on the promise of future prospects which may or may not pan out.
An uneasy sense, not any financial savvy, is what tells me--"There's a disconnect here between what is being bought, and what can sensibly be afforded." I'm afraid of some hard reckoning, but don't know what form it will take.
I feel the exact same way before the dot com bust... everyone was in a rush to get to San Jose.....
I didn't feel this way a year ago
But I am starting to think that I want to get my hands on some liquid cash soon so not to miss out on some really good deals when people start freeing themselves up from such burdens.